Ezekiel 16:22-42 The Lord’s Useless and Faithless Bride, Pt 2

[Study Aired May 6, 2024]

Introduction

Today’s study is about the Lord showing us our abominations. According to Strong’s Dictionary, abomination refers to something disgusting morally; especially idolatry or having an idol. 

Deu 29:17  And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them)

Deu 32:16  They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.

We do not have to physically worship an idol before we are guilty of abomination. In Ezekiel chapter 14, we are made aware that when we cherish man’s wisdom and tradition more than the truth of the word of the Lord, then we have idols of the heart which is the stumbling block of our iniquity before the Lord.  During our time in Babylon, we were given an evil experience from the Lord as we were given over to these idols of the heart through what we imbibe from the pulpit of the churches that we thought were the true bride. Most of the apostles in their writings warned us of this situation. 

2Pe 2:18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 
2Pe 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

This evil experience is part of the Lord’s agenda as we can see from the Book of Revelation and that of Joel where locusts are released from the bottomless pit (from our own selves) to harass the Lord’s people and the people of the world. However, to the Lord’s elect, even though these locusts shall cause much pain in our lives, we are kept by the Lord from destroying us completely. These locusts represent false apostles and teachers who come as angels of light. 

2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 
2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 
Rev 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

Joe 1:2  Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? 
Joe 1:3  Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 
Joe 1:4  That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
Joe 1:5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

The new wine in Joel 1:5 refers to the truth of the word of the Lord which was cut off from our mouth as we became entrenched in our idols of our hearts by what these men of God (locusts) teaches. In Joel chapter 2, we can see how the Lord has empowered them with resources as they enter into homes and wreak havoc to many. 

Joe 2:2  A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. 
Joe 2:3  A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. 
Joe 2:4  The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. 
Joe 2:5  Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
Joe 2:6  Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. 
Joe 2:7  They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march everyone on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: 
Joe 2:8  Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk everyone in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.
Joe 2:9  They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief (enter through televisions, social media, etc.).

Falling upon the sword and not being wounded in Joel 2:8 means the word of the Lord is not effective in the lives of these men of God (locusts) and by implication, our brothers and sisters in Babylon. However, to the Lord’s elect, the word of the Lord is like a double-edged sword which is able to pierce through us to divide asunder our soul and spirit and help us to discern our thoughts and intents of our hearts.

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 

In today’s study, even though the Lord has given us over to these false apostles at a certain stage of our walk with Him in Babylon, the end result of this evil experience for us, the Lord’s elect, is that we cease from playing the harlot and become obedient children. Ezekiel Chapter 16 therefore focuses on showing us our abominations and the resulting judgment of our old man, which causes us to learn righteousness and therefore cease from harlotry.   

The Lord’s People Described as a Harlot

Eze 16:22  And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood. 
Eze 16:23  And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;) 
Eze 16:24  That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street. 
Eze 16:25  Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms. 
Eze 16:26  Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.

The days of our youth in verse 22 refers to our time in Babylon when we were naked and polluted by our own blood. These verses are showing us our abominations or wickedness which is the result of our whoredom. In verses 24 to 26, we are given to know what it means to be a whore in spite of the great favor the Lord has shown to us. Being a whore means we are enchanted by other men (another Jesus) even though we are married to Christ. This was our lives in Babylon or the physical churches of this world during the days of our youth:

Pro 7:9  In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: 
Pro 7:10  And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. 
Pro 7:11  (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: 
Pro 7:12  Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) 
Pro 7:13  So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, 
Pro 7:14  I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows. 
Pro 7:15  Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. 
Pro 7:16  I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. 
Pro 7:17  I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 
Pro 7:18  Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
Pro 7:19  For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

It is only when Christ comes to us with the spirit of His mouth and with His brightness that we come to see we have played the harlot during our time in Babylon. 

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 
Rev 17:4  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: 
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

One of our sins as a whore was that we built eminent places for ourselves and made ourselves high places in every street. The eminent place here refers to a brothel-house. Internally, our hearts and minds (the temple of the Lord) became a brothel house where we revered all kinds of idols of our hearts (false doctrines) more than the truth of the word of the Lord. Externally, Babylon or the physical churches of this world, have become brothel houses where all kinds of false doctrines are revered more than the word of the Lord. No wonder at every turn of a street, we have these high places (churches).

Secondly, we made our beauty an abomination by becoming fond of idols such that we offered ourselves to all kinds of idols of the heart and therefore multiplied our whoring. In our time in Babylon, we gathered for ourselves all kinds of teachers who brought heresies, thus polluting the truth of the word of the Lord which beautifies us.  

2Ti 4:3  For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
2Ti 4:4  and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 
2Ti 4:5  As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 

Thirdly, we committed fornication with the Egyptians who are our neighbors and used our prostitution to make the Lord angry. As we are aware, Egypt represents the world, and therefore the Egyptians symbolize the people of the world who walk according to the dictates of their flesh. Committing fornication with the Egyptians therefore means that we walked according to the standards of this world, which is idolatry. It is when we are dominated by the flesh that we walk according to the standards of this world. 

Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 
Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. 
Col 3:8  But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

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.

Eze 16:27  Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way. 
Eze 16:28  Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied. 
Eze 16:29  Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith. 
Eze 16:30  How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman; 

In view of our whorish behavior, the Lord is ready to judge us. In verse 27, the Lord stretching out His hand over us to diminish our food and to deliver us into the hands of the enemy is the Lord coming to judge our old man. Diminishing our food is famine which is one of the four sore judgments of the Lord. It signifies the absence of the truth of the word of the Lord which makes us worse off as we wander from sea to sea. It is through famine of the word of the Lord that facilitated our exit from Babylon and caused us to come to treasure the truth of the word of the Lord.

Amo 8:11  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
Amo 8:12  And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. 
Amo 8:13  In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

Delivering us into the hands of them that hate us is the Lord’s judgment of pestilence. The Lord uses pestilence when we have gotten far away from Him. For example, when the children of Israel were in Egypt, the Lord used pestilence to get their attention. The Lord’s use of pestilence means that the people of Israel were given over to the devil, which in this case was represented by Pharaoh who caused the people of Israel to be under great affliction.

Lev 26:25  And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

The daughters of the Philistines, which the Lord delivered us into their hands, represent the physical churches of this world or Babylon, where we are oppressed.    

Isa 3:12  As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. 
Isa 3:13  The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. 
Isa 3:14  The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. 

Playing the harlot with the Assyrians and multiplying our fornication with the trading land of Chaldea are the result of being given over by the Lord to the devil, the enemy. As a result, we become worse off.

Rom 1:21  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Rom 1:22  Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 
Rom 1:23  and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 
Rom 1:24  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 
Rom 1:25  because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 

Here in verse 30, we are told that our hearts are really sick as we do the deeds of a brazen harlot. What we need to know is that the harlot in the Book of Revelation is not different from the harlot here in the Book of Ezekiel or other parts of the Bible. Here in Ezekiel, we are talking about the Lord’s people who are described as harlot. That means you and I have played the harlot at a certain stage of our walk with Christ.

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 
Rev 17:4  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: 
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Eze 16:31  In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire; 
Eze 16:32  But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband! 
Eze 16:33  They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom. 
Eze 16:34  And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.

As we indicated earlier, the building of an eminent place in every square and street refers to the turning of our place of worship of the Lord into places of prostitution where we prefer man’s wisdom and tradition to the truth of the word of the Lord. We do not need to travel to be at such eminent places or brothels because there is always one next door!! 

In verse 31, we are also told that we were not like a typical prostitute because we scorned payment. This conversation continues in verse 33 and 34 where we are told that we were different from other women who are into prostitution who are paid by the men who require their service. In our case, we would rather give gifts to our lovers!! Let’s take a look at what’s happening in the churches of this world. There are many who are laboring in the churches thinking they are working for the Lord who will reward them in the fullness of time. Apart from the pastors who are being paid, all others (choristers, ushers, deacons, etc.) are not paid for their service, thinking they are doing it for the Lord. We have all served in these churches and would have ended up empty-handed when the Lord comes. On the other hand, we were paying our tithes and offering to our leaders who enrich themselves at our prostitution with another Jesus. We were truly blind in every way!! However, in the Lord’s mercy, He delivered us out of Babylon!! This was what our state was when we were serving in Babylon:

2Co 3:14  But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 
2Co 3:15  Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 
2Co 3:16  But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 
2Co 3:17  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Eze 16:35  Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD: 
Eze 16:36  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;
Eze 16:37  Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them roundabout against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. 
Eze 16:38  And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy. 
Eze 16:39  And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare. 
Eze 16:40  They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.

In view of our indiscretion in idolizing man’s wisdom and tradition instead of seeking the truth of the word of the Lord, the Lord is making us aware that we shall face His judgment. Here in verse 37, as part of the Lord’s judgment, we are to be given over to those who hate us. As we indicated earlier, being given over to those who hate us means the Lord is using one of His tools of judgment, that is, pestilence, to come to know our sins. It is insightful to note that in verse 39 we are given to know the result of the Lord’s judgment of handing us over to our enemy, that is, the devil. It is through this judgment that our hearts and minds are cleansed as our eminent place and high places within us are destroyed. We are also stripped of our self-righteous clothing and even the little truth of the word of the Lord that we know (fair jewels) is taken away. This is all done to help us see our nakedness before the Lord (verse 39). Our situation is not different from the prodigal son. It was when the prodigal son found himself naked that he came to his senses to go back to the Lord, his father.

Luk 15:13  And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 
Luk 15:14  And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
Luk 15:15  And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 
Luk 15:16  And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 
Luk 15:17  And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 
Luk 15:18  I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 
Luk 15:19  And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

Being stoned with stones in verse 40 is the same as being judged for our adulterous life as the wife of Christ where we have given ourselves over to another Jesus. Remember that the woman caught in adultery was going to be stoned when Jesus intervened.

Joh 8:3  And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, 
Joh 8:4  They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
Joh 8:5  Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

Our enemies thrusting through us with their swords in verse 40 refers to words that are spoken which destroy us. The sword refers to the lying words and false doctrines of the adversary.

2Ti 2:17  And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; 
2Ti 2:18  Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

Psa 64:2  Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity: 
Psa 64:3  Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words: 

These negative words spoken are one of the tools the Lord uses to cause people to speak bitter words to us, His elect. 

Eze 38:21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.

The End Result of the Lord’ Judgment

Eze 16:41  And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more. 
Eze 16:42  So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.

These verses are to assure us that the evil experience the Lord is taking us through is not in vain. If we are called and chosen, then through the Lord’s judgment, we shall cease from playing the harlot as shown in verse 41.

Psa 119:67  Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. 

1Pe 4:1  Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
1Pe 4:2  so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

The Lord’s fury toward us will also come to an end such that the Lord will no longer be angry with us as shown in verse 42.

Isa 54:7  For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you.
Isa 54:8  In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer.

Ceasing from playing the harlot means that the Lord will deliver us from Babylon, and we shall come to hear the truth of the Lord’s word as we enter into the assembly of the elect. 

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.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 
Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 
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. 
Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

To stop playing the harlot also means that we shall be able to test the spirits to see if they are from the Lord. That is the same as being given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Being given the keys means being given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 16:17  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 
Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 
Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 

Isa 22:20  And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim (a type of the elect) the son of Hilkiah: 
Isa 22:21  And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. 
Isa 22:22  And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 
1Jn 4:2  By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 
1Jn 4:3  and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

May the Lord grant us the grace to know Him more through His words as our idols of the heart continue to be destroyed by the Lord’s brightness. Amen!!

… is the impenetrable conviction of living the mind of Christ

[Study Aired December 16, 2023]

The last study, Part 9, “An Answering Conscience”, finished by highlighting the Father, Christ, Christ’s Bride, and saved humanity collectively identified as the heavenly Jerusalem, the City of God symbolically made of precious stones, crystal and gold. Anyone who is defiled, meaning in their time and age having not yet been clothed in Christ, cannot be a precious element in the construction of the New Jerusalem until he can “answer” with a “pure conscience” of faithfully keeping all the commandments of Christ. Of course, and especially to a Babylonian Christian, that requirement is an absurd impossibility without the knowledge that it is our Lord’s righteousness attributed to us as righteousness when we utterly, and with a pure conscience, believe faithfully with an unfeigned heart just where our heart resides ~ with Him, or covertly with the impure conscience of an idol of our heart.

What is a “pure conscience”, and how do we attain it?

The term “pure” is first used in Exodus 2:11 and is God’s command through Moses to make the Ark of the Covenant of shittim wood overlaid with pure gold. The Ark represents Christ, our Lord, who is symbolised as pure gold. However, residing within him and the continuing creation of God is a corruptible man, represented as shittim wood overlaid by Christ, man’s crown of glory. This is the beginning of the creation of God, after which corruptible man will torturously be refined in the fire to become Christ, figuratively birthed by him and represented as He is, pure gold.

Exo 25:10  And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. 
Exo 25:11  And thou shalt overlay it with pure [H2889] gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.

Pure H2889 – 1. pure, clean a. clean (ceremonially – of animals) b. pure (physically) c. pure, clean (morally, ethically)

The term pure is primarily related to being physically clean or unclean, which represents the reality of its spiritual counterpart. The term “unclean” is mentioned in Scripture 194 times and “clean” 133 times, and its inward character for an Elect to be a joint in the Bride of Christ for the First Resurrection is dependent upon him being ‘pure’. Of course, as with almost all root terms, they have several terms with the same meaning, and for the expression, pure, defile is one. Speaking of the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ,

Rev 21:27  And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth [G2840 – 1. to make common a. to make (Levitically) unclean, render unhallowed, defile, profane b. to declare or count unclean], neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life. 

Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Being spiritually pure is our Lord’s commanded requirement to attain eternal life in one of the two resurrections, with the First Resurrection being the most holy.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

As stated in this study’s opening paragraph, Babylonian Christianity sees God’s requirement for everyone to become pure gold as an absurd unattainability, so they adjust the Lord’s commands to make them, in their image, achievable.

Eze 16:15  But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. 
Eze 16:16  And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.
Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
Eze 16:18  And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.

However, the Elect of God has been given a way to escape from the corruption of the heavenly and replace that shittim wood with the pure gold of Christ. They are overjoyed to first be given eyes that see and ears that hear, where the Babylonian sense of hopelessness of attaining the seemingly unattainable credentials of the Lord leaves them in despair and lowering the bar of eternal life for their achievability.

The Elect of God eagerly run forward towards the purifying fire by faith, beginning with Abraham and continuing with all the examples of the Godly men and women of old until this very day. The Bride of Christ doesn’t fear the cold, the night, war, famines, disease, or abandonment of family and friends because they are given to lay hold of that crown of righteousness that guarantees Christ’s workmanship without any sweat of our own. It all is the process of Christ’s faith in us counted as our righteousness.

Psa 8:3  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 
Psa 8:4  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 
Psa 8:5  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour [predestined him to be crowned and overlaid with Christ ~ pure gold].
Psa 8:6  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: [beginning with Christ and His Christs]

Gen 15:3  And Abram said, Behold, You have given no seed to me. And behold, one born in my house is my heir.
Gen 15:4  And behold, the Word of Jehovah came to him saying, This one shall not be your heir. But he that shall come forth out of your own bowels shall be your heir.
Gen 15:5  And He brought him outside and said, Look now toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And He said to him, So shall your seed be.
Gen 15:6  And he believed [faith!] in Jehovah. And He counted it to him for righteousness.

Following is an account of Abraham further being justified by faith…

Rom 4:19  And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: 
Rom 4:20  He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
Rom 4:21  And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Rom 4:22  And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Rom 4:23  Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 
Rom 4:24  But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
Rom 4:25  Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

So, there it is! Even though our sins are scarlet, through our God-given faith, even while accounting for sin (not accountable), we are incredibly blessed by being ‘imputed for righteousness’; that IS the glorious imputation and peace of a “pure conscience!”

It is in this age since the cross that Christ’s Bride is the first to be given “the impenetrable conviction of living the mind of Christ”; a pure conscience and thus save her brothers and sisters of the World, subsequently beginning with their indictment without the holy spirit in the One Thousand Years, and finally the agonising gain and conviction of a pure conscience in the Resurrection to Judgment.

Upon the Lord’s very Elect being dragged to Christ, Mike has frequently said, “If we understand the meaning of marriage, we will understand the Bible”, meaning that we will see all the phenomenal spiritual connections between our physical marriages and our marriage to Christ and immense honor and respect of the Father.

Our Lord is teaching and creating His Bride to have a pure conscience toward God through Him. Although He requires from her pure gold, it is her faithfulness in and by him that is the superstructure of the Temple she is and is more precious than fine gold ~ though faithfulness is paradoxically represented as gold.

As the Body of Christ has painfully learned in past years, if everything is spiritualised, then that would make the Temple worth more than the gold of God’s word that created the Temple which we are; effectively making the created greater than the creator.

Rom 1:24  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 
Rom 1:25  Who changed the truth of God [His gold, His Word] into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature [the Temple] more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 

Mat 23:17  Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies [G37 – 1. to render or acknowledge [the gold], or to be venerable or hallow 2. to separate from profane things and dedicate to God a. consecrate things to God. From G 40 – 1. most holy thing, a saint G53 – 1. exciting reverence, venerable, sacred 2. pure a. pure from carnality, chaste, modest b. pure from every fault, immaculate c. clean] the gold? 

Mat 5:21  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 
Mat 5:22  But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, [empty, senseless, empty-headed man] shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool [G3474], shall be in danger of hell fire.

Fool G3474 – – Transliteration: Moros
– Phonetic: mo-ros’
– Definition: 

1. foolish 
2. impious, Godless

What comes to mind from the Greek word Moros in contemporary language is to call someone a moron, meaning a fool or idiot. Jesus was undoubtedly referring to the Pharisees’ stark alarm of having their evil-seared conscience exposed for losing control over the laity. Their power is represented by their ‘gold’ remaining entrenched in the increasingly contorted covenant from Mt. Sinai.

It is unlikely, yet highly comforting and humiliating if we were called a “fool” by anyone, particularly an Elder, a person of God-given honor and respect. It is most unlikely that Jesus used the term “fool” purely for a derogatory effect, especially since he inspired scripture to condemn anyone for calling his brother a “fool.”

Jesus is not indicting the Pharisees to be accountable for their deliberate foolishness; He is censuring them for not giving an account of their deliberate craftiness of avoiding the truth; similarly, in the account of their dragging the woman caught in adultery to Him for a satisfying stoning and thus foolishly believing that they can snare Jesus by the Law of Moses. We, indeed, are foolish Pharisees if we believe we can trap our Lord with our ‘gold’ of self-righteousness. Besides, the Lord can do with His own creation as He wishes, and if it means we must learn by being humiliated by Him in being called a “fool”, it is a day of wonderful learning.

The old adage that ‘money is power’ is true, and some serious doubts remain that Mayer Amschel Rothschild coined the following quote, “Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!” rings true. Gold is power, both physically and spiritually, and the Jewish Pharisees within us covertly protect that power. Since it is our Lord who does the evil in the city, which we are, we are calling Him a “fool” if we give a brother that contemptible label.

1Ti 6:9  But those who have a desire for wealth are falling into danger, and are taken as in a net by a number of foolish and damaging desires, through which men are overtaken by death and destruction.
1Ti 6:10  For the love of money is a root of all evil: and some whose hearts were fixed on it have been turned away from the faith, and been wounded with unnumbered sorrows.

There are two types of gold. In the negative, the Pharisees and we, in our time, are terrified that we would lose our iron-fisted power, represented by the spiritual gold of self-righteousness. God owns all the gold, and in the positive aspect, He is creating in His Elect the faithfulness of His word of incorruptible spiritual gold. 

The answer to Mat 23:7 is the Temple that our new spiritual bodies represent is more precious than the former glory of the old gold of the Law of Moses. The irony is that the Temple we are is being made of pure spiritual gold. If we are made allegorically of pure gold, we are imbued with a “pure conscience” in ALL the commandments of Christ!

Isa 13:12  I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.

It is the process we endure to become the pure gold of faithfulness paradoxically worth more than fine gold. (No wonder our former Babylonian Christian selves couldn’t grasp the Lord’s parables.) Our Lord shook the Pharisees’ heavens mostly to no avail, but to us it is given to feel the earthquake and see the heavenly things for our understanding and formation of a pure conscience.

To further complicate the paradox of which is greater – the gold or the temple – the Jews today in the re-established counterfeit holy land in Palestine are determined to rebuild a temple on the original temple mount. Nothing is more sacred to the Jews to outwardly substantiate their illusory power than a physical temple proudly standing on the temple mount in Jerusalem. Almost all of Zionist Christianity supports that unwitting delusion since they, as the Apostles and we have been, could mostly only perceive the physical establishment of God’s Kingdom being instigated by our former immutable belief that salvation is of the (physical) Jews; they don’t understand and thus dismiss the next verses.

Joh 4:22  Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
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 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to [old] Jerusalem which now is, and is [remains] in bondage with her children.

BOTH, including their children, are in bondage while believing that salvation is by works, and, for the Jews, that salvation is by the ethnicity of being a Jew inclusive of works.

If we worship in spirit and in truth, we are dyed with a ‘pure conscience’.

Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnessar’s terrifying dream of a mighty statue saw its head made of pure gold. The statue’s spiritual meaning represents God as our head in the creation of God, where He is in the process of recreating man in His image. We are already joined to Him with a breast and arms of silver, a belly and thighs of bronze (copper), legs of iron and feet partly iron and clay. The recreation of God begins with the head and flows downwards until the entire Body of Christ is spirit, as God is spirit, represented as pure gold.

Dan 2:31  You, O king, were seeing. And, behold! A great image! That great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you. And its form was dreadful.
Dan 2:32  This image’s head was of fine gold; his breast and his arms were of silver; his belly and his thighs were of bronze;
Dan 2:33  his legs were of iron; his feet were part of iron and part of clay. 
Dan 2:34  You watched until a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image upon its feet which were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. 
Dan 2:35  Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces together. And they became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Christ is that stone that strikes Nebuchadnessar’s bold image of the Beast we are, sitting in the Temple of God, unwittingly and proudly stating that we are God, forgetting that we are merely clay.

Hag 2:6  For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; 
Hag 2:7  And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. 
Hag 2:8  The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.
Hag 2:9  The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, [The spiritual Temple is greater than the gold!] saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

In the following two verses, the Son and the Father are stating their plan of the process of creating man in the Godhead’s image, first of inferior elements of the earth collectively called clay.

Nebuchadnessar’s image is made of refined elements extracted from the earth, represented as “clay”. The prototype of God composed of elements that are inferior and subject to decay are designed to be smashed to shivers and blown away in the summer wind to humble their creation, after which the man will be recreated in the purity of spirit that God exists and is symbolised by gold.

Gen 1:26 And saying is the Elohim, “Make will We humanity in Our image, and according to Our likeness [for the moment made of clay, but with great admiration (wonder) being made a Temple of pure gold], and sway shall they over the fish of the sea, and over the flyer of the heavens, and over the beast, and over all land life, and over every moving animal moving on the land.
Gen 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them. (CLV)

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;

Joh 10:34  Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

Rom 8:19 For the premonition of the creation is awaiting the unveiling of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20 For to vanity was the creation subjected, not voluntarily, but because of Him Who subjects it, in expectation”
Rom 8:21 that the creation itself, also, shall be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

Mat 19:16  And behold, one came and said to Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?
Mat 19:17  And He said to him, Why do you call Me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.

We, being depicted as the rich young man in Matthew 19, came to Christ and, at different times in our lives, innocently and deceitfully, ingratiated him with the term “good Master.” Jesus, while clothed in sinful flesh, educated us that the flesh of which he was composed is definitely not ‘good.’ So, and in a similar capacity, we, in the same evil flesh as He, can have a “good conscience”, all the while knowing that we are forgiven beforehand because the spirit of a ‘good conscience’ knows that while aware that we are evil flesh, our authentic mission is not to sin. Pure gold symbolises our God-given lust for the precious substance, whereas a “pure conscience” identifies our unswerving dedication of faithfulness in the pursuit of gold. Conversely, an impure conscience is the equivalence of ‘the Whore’ and her apathy to be spiritually aroused by her Husband.

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1Pe 1:4  to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and unfading, reserved in Heaven for you
1Pe 1:5  by the power of God, having been kept through faith to a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time; 
1Pe 1:6  in which you greatly rejoice, yet a little while, if need be, grieving in manifold temptations;
1Pe 1:7  so that the trial of your faith (being much more precious than that of gold that perishes, but being proven through fire) might be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
1Pe 1:8  whom having not seen, you love; in whom not yet seeing, but believing in Him you exult with unspeakable joy, and having been glorified, 
1Pe 1:9  obtaining the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Although the Lord will only suffer us being made of pure gold, it is His faith given to us that supersedes the beauty of gold. The gold, precious stones, crystal and twelve gates of the Heavenly Jerusalem, each being made of a single pearl, all symbolise the unspeakable beauty of our Lord’s Wife and her Children subsequently flowing in and out of her.

As with the Temple that we are, being created in Christ’s image, the trial of our faith is what He is seeking ~ settling for unrefined ‘good’ gold suggests slothfulness and is barely enough for us to be in the Kingdom of God. Any remaining dross or impurity in our ‘good gold’ will not be counted against us since the Lord knows the spirit and intent of our “good conscience” which He is creating and is described as a “pure heart.”

1Ti 1:5  Now the end of the commandment [any matter] is charity out of a pure heart, and of a [resulting in a…] good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

The second occurrence of the term “good conscience” that exists in scripture is the qualifications for the selection of Elders. Again, even Elders, being made of the same evil flesh as Jesus, are subject to sin. The Lord saw His creation and said it was “good”, not pure. In the same vein, Elders and indeed the Body of Christ are being made “pure” even while in that wretched evil flesh we lament as good for now. 

Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. 

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the [paradoxically good] body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord [in the process of creating me pure]. So then with the mind I myself [aim by His strength to] serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

1Ti 3:8  Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued [that should instantly sting him with a “convicting/evil/defiled conscience”], not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre [their gold of self-righteousness containing the laity and fearful of losing Pharisaical power]; 
1Ti 3:9  Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

How does anyone in the Body of Christ hold the mystery of faith in a pure conscience? By knowing he is subject to sin, yet being instant in prayer (Rom 12:12) for Christ’s strength to rebuke with a trumpet blast the evil approaching his city within. That intentional dynamic impulse results in the peace of a “pure conscience”.

A pure conscience is the resultant peace of spiritual perfection, so how do we attain perfection?

Only two cases where the words “pure conscience” are together; however, there are many inferences of a good conscience (1Ti 3:9).

For the Elect of God, the mystery of faith is a rapidly fading mystery when we are dedicated to pursuing Him with all our heart, and that action results in a pure conscience upon immutably knowing and ‘remembering’ our dedication to keeping all our Lord’s commandments.

2Ti 1:3  I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; 

Christ’s spirit bearing witness with His spirit within us is the result of a pure conscience.

There are hundreds of scriptural accounts depicting a pure conscience. One last distinction that I cannot resist is Jephthah’s tragic vow, which, for brevity’s sake, can be read in Judges 11:29-40. Both Jephthah and his only child, his (unnamed) daughter’s dedication to acting with a pure conscience is exemplary. Neither gave a thought to “accusing or excusing” their or the other’s conscience (Rom 2:15). Jephthah vowed to the Lord that if he was given the defeat of the children of Ammon, he would sacrifice the first person to come forth through his door to meet him upon his victorious return. Of course, in his haste and focus on acquiring the Lord’s blessing and inevitable celebration of victory, Jephthah didn’t diligently envision the possible sequence of events that would present his offering. To his earth-shattering horror, it was his precious daughter who first came forth to meet him.

Jephthah’s sacrifice wasn’t a physical blood human sacrifice of his cherished daughter that the heathen were accustomed to, which the Lord sternly prohibited Israel from copying. She represents the Bride of Christ, who likewise is symbolically sacrificed in the morning as literally Christ was before the other beasts came forth from the barn of the World and painstakingly learn to acknowledge their sins in the Lake of Fire. 

The face value written on the account doesn’t directly state that Jephthah sacrificed his daughter as the Law required with his expectation that, in all likelihood, by the Lord’s choosing, a person of great value would come forth as the sacrifice ~ ironically, it did!

Jdg 11:37  And she said unto her Father, Let this thing [the sacrifice] be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity [not impending sacrificial death], I and my fellows.
Jdg 11:38  And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. 

Just as Japhthah’s daughter bewailed her virginity for two months, the Bride of Christ is a witness (number 2) dedicated to the world and is being created with a ‘pure conscience’ of her virginity. Her virginity is the result of her Father’s vow, and she is now a superb example of keeping that vow. Similarly with Hannah’s “shut up womb” in 1 Samuel 1, Jephthah’s daughter’s womb is with her pure conscience, sealed with a vow just as our Father for this age has figuratively sealed and made “desolate” our womb while dedicated to our Lord. The Lord’s Elect are first out of the world’s doors before her children, and she is first under Christ to be sacrificed, ‘bewailing’ (Jdg 11:37) upon the mountains of the World in waiting to bring forth her children’s sacrifice in the form of the Lake of Fire.

Isa 54:1  Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife [Babylonian Christianity], saith the LORD. 
Isa 54:2  Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; 
Isa 54:3  For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. 
Isa 54:4  Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

Being given a pure conscience, the Lord’s Elect are being made pure and continue to abandon the desires and lusts of the flesh.

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 
Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:5  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

As I’ve previously stated, throw a dart at scripture, and you can weave a study using any biblical term as a starting point to which this study attests. As we have seen in this study on a “Pure Conscience”, that doctrine, as with every other scripture and doctrine of Christ, can be interwoven in the Temple of God, the Bride of Christ, her every joint perfectly fitted together.

God-given spiritual understanding is our Lord’s poetry communicated to the World but not understood. The poet T.S. Eliot, like Solomon, came so close to understanding the spirit of all things but irksomely remained “black” to Christ’s spirit of understanding. T.S. Eliot said, and I quote, “Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”… think about that; to the Elect of God, it is eventually seeing spiritually that which results in an earth-shattering “pure conscience” in all things.

Acts 25:1-27  I Appeal Unto Caesar

[Study Aired October 1, 2023]

Act 25:1  Now when Festus was come into the province, after three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem.
Act 25:2  Then the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul, and besought him,
Act 25:3  And desired favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him.
Act 25:4  But Festus answered, that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself would depart shortly thither.
Act 25:5  Let them therefore, said he, which among you are able, go down with me, and accuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him.
Act 25:6  And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Caesarea; and the next day sitting on the judgment seat commanded Paul to be brought.
Act 25:7  And when he was come, the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood round about, and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove.
Act 25:8  While he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all.
Act 25:9  But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul, and said, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before me?
Act 25:10  Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged: to the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest.
Act 25:11  For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die: but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar.
Act 25:12  Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go.
Act 25:13  And after certain days king Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus.
Act 25:14  And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul’s cause unto the king, saying, There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix:
Act 25:15  About whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him.
Act 25:16  To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.
Act 25:17  Therefore, when they were come hither, without any delay on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat, and commanded the man to be brought forth.
Act 25:18  Against whom when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed:
Act 25:19  But had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.
Act 25:20  And because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these matters.
Act 25:21  But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I might send him to Caesar.
Act 25:22  Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. To morrow, said he, thou shalt hear him.
Act 25:23  And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, at Festus’ commandment Paul was brought forth.
Act 25:24  And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, ye see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem, and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.
Act 25:25  But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and that he himself hath appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him.
Act 25:26  Of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my lord. Wherefore I have brought him forth before you, and specially before thee, O king Agrippa, that, after examination had, I might have somewhat to write.
Act 25:27  For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.

In this chapter we will learn that, just as it was with Joseph when his ten brothers who hated him simply because their father loved Joseph more that his brothers, so it is with us as the Lord’s elect who are hated by our brothers in Christ for the same reason. Paul’s experience with his Jewish brothers signifies our experience with our Christian brothers. We, too, are safer and we receive more mercy when we are being judged by the secular people of this world than we are if we are being judged by our ‘Diotrophes’ brothers in Christ who have “cast [us] out of the church” in favor of all the lies of Babylon over the truths of the doctrines of Christ. This truth is no doubt part of the reason for these inspired words via the pen of the apostle Paul:

Rom 13:1  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Rom 13:2  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
Rom 13:3  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
Rom 13:4  For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Rom 13:5  Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
Rom 13:6  For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
Rom 13:7  Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

At the beginning of this book of Acts, the Jewish synagogues signify the churches of Babylon. Near the end of this book, and in the epistles of Paul, Peter, and John, the “synagogue of Satan” and “Babylon the Great” signify the apostasy of the Christian church itself.

Here are a few verses which reveal the extent of the apostasy of the Christian church before the death of the apostles. While these verses may make us shake our heads, we had better just pray that the Lord does not take away our own spiritual vision and our spiritual ears:

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

Earlier Paul had warned Timothy about false ministers who were already within the church:

1Ti 1:19  Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:20  Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

This ‘Hymenaeus’ is mentioned again as working to spread his heresy with another apostate:

2Ti 2:17  And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 2:18  Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

If Hymenaeus were sharing this heresy with Philetus, there is no doubt he shared it also with Alexander, whom Paul also incriminates as an early apostate along with some of Paul’s own fellow laborers:

2Ti 4:9  Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:
2Ti 4:10  For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
2Ti 4:11  Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
2Ti 4:12  And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus.
2Ti 4:13  The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.
2Ti 4:14  Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
2Ti 4:15  Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.
2Ti 4:16  At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. [“Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luk 23:34)]
2Ti 4:17  Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
2Ti 4:18  And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Peter was also contending with this same spirit of apostasy within the church in his epistles where he also reveals that Paul’s epistles were already canonized as scripture by the apostles:

2Pe 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2Pe 3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

The apostle John was also struggling against the apostasy taking hold in the church:

3Jn 1:9  I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them [meaning those in the church], 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.

It was the leaders of the apostasy of the church who already had the upper hand and had the influence and the ability to cast Christ’s “disciples indeed” out of the church. Just like the Jews who were persecuting Paul, Diotrephes loved being preeminent in the church, and he hated John’s doctrines to the extent that, as a church leader, he cast those who received John’s messengers out of the church.

The gospels reveal that this same spirit, which desired preeminence, was in the Jewish leadership which hated Christ and His doctrines. That would be these Jews who were falsely accusing the apostle Paul:

Joh 11:45  [After raising Lazarus from the dead] many of the Jews which came to [Lazarus’ sister] Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.
Joh 11:46  But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done.
Joh 11:47  Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.
Joh 11:48  If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation [and we will lose our preeminence].

Cain wanted to be preeminent over Abel, Joseph’s brothers wanted to be over Joseph, and Korah and the 250 elders wanted to be preeminent over Moses and Aaron. That is the spirit of preeminence which was driving Paul’s detractors, and that is the same spirit which withstands the Truth until this very day. The Truth is that the leaders of modern Christianity do not know the doctrine of Christ and will not be in the first resurrection. It is the same thing as telling them, “You are of your father, the devil” (Joh 8:44). For anyone to acknowledge that fact, alienates that person from the mainstream historic Christian church which speaks with such high regard about all the past church councils and synods, which came after the Jerusalem council of Acts 15. All those councils and synods were full of heresies about a triune God and another Christ who wants us to get involved in the affairs and politics of this age. All who follow them and do so will hear these words of our Lord:

Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Such is the spirit of the leaders of “the church in the wilderness” who are seeking to kill Paul, the New Testament symbol of all who are faithful to the words of Christ. “The church in the wilderness” is the symbol of the great harlot who is also “in the spirit… in the wilderness.”

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

This ‘woman’ wants Paul, and all who are faithful to Christ and His doctrines, dead:

Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

In this study Paul signifies “the saints” whom this great harlot wants to murder:

Act 25:1  Now when Festus was come into the province, after three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem.
Act 25:2  Then the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul, and besought him,
Act 25:3  And desired favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him.

The physical type must always precede the spiritual anti-type. Therefore, physical Jerusalem, the city which symbolizes the capital of the physical kingdom of God on this earth, is declared to be a spiritual harlot and a literal murderer of men:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers [“Drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus”].
Isa 1:22  Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: [Truth twisted into heresy]
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, [His own people] and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

The Lord has declared He will judge this great whore and “purge away [her] dross and take away her tin.”

The apostle Paul refers to physical Israel as an olive tree, with Christ as the root of that tree and the branches signifying physical Israel.  In Romans 11 he reveals that God has broken off the natural branches, and it is the Gentile Christian church which the Lord has “graffed” into the root of the olive tree. The natural branches were originally and physically only Jewish and of the seed of Abraham “according to the flesh”:

Act 2:29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Act 2:30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

Heb 2:16  For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

The doctrine of the gospel going to the Gentiles infuriated the established ‘church in the wilderness’, the leaders, and the people of Judaism. It infuriated them because it alienated them from God, just as the doctrine of universal salvation alienates the leaders and the people of Christianity today from a God whom they teach will never do such a thing.

Paul explains this phenomenon in:

Rom 11:11  I say then, Have [the Jews] stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
Rom 11:12  Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?
Rom 11:13  For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
Rom 11:14  If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
Rom 11:15  For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
Rom 11:16  For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
Rom 11:17  And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
Rom 11:18  Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

What Paul writes in the next few verses here in Romans 11 is a prophecy of the apostasy of the Christian church itself. We will come back to Romans 11:19 in a few minutes, but first we must understand that being grafted into the spiritual “Israel of God” does not inoculate one from the scourge of apostasy any more than being the seed of Abraham, kept “those Jews which believed on [Christ]” from being “of your father the devil.”

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

The fact is that Christ spoke those words to ‘spiritual’ Israel, because He was speaking to “those Jews which believed on Him.”

Joh 8:30  As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin [even if you are Abraham’s seed and even if you do believe on Jesus].

Armed with the knowledge that believing in Jesus does not keep us from believing a lie, let’s go back to what Paul tells us in Romans 11:

Rom 11:19  Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
Rom 11:20 (a) Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith.

Earlier in this same epistle, Paul reveals that faith in Christ turns a physical Gentile Christian into a “spiritual… Jew”, and in the epistle to the Galatians he says that being ‘a new creature in Christ’ makes Gentiles who are in Christ “the Israel of God.”

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: [Many professing Christians would say this verse is blatant heresy]
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but 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. (GWV)

In Romans 11 the holy spirit inspired Paul to tell us that God Himself has broken off the natural branches for the purpose of grafting into His ‘olive tree’ the spiritual branches composed of physical Gentiles who now become “inward… spiritual… Jews” and therefore “the Israel of God.” Then in the very next few verses Paul gives us Gentile believers, these ‘spiritual Jews’, the exact same warning Christ gave to “those Jews which believed on Him… but could not receive His Words.”

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.

Few Christians have ever heard that it is entirely possible to believe in Jesus and yet “continue [not] in [His] word.” Few Christians know that there is a world of difference between being a disciple of Christ and being “[His] disciples indeed [only] if ye continue in My Word…”  Those are Christ’s words to Jews who believed on Him, and these are Paul’s words to Gentiles Christians who also believe on Him:

Rom 11:20  Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
Rom 11:21  For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
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.
Rom 11:23  And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.
Rom 11:24  For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?

Paul’s warning to us as believing Gentiles today, and to the early Gentile Christian church, is the exact same warning Christ gave to ‘those Jews which believed on Him.” Let us place John 8:31 side by side with Romans 11:22:

Jesus said to “those Jews which believed on Him”:

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

Paul, to believing Gentiles:

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.

It is the same warning in both verses. ‘If [we] continue in [His] Word’ is ‘continuing in His goodness.’ “Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”

“Thou also shall be cut off” was a prophecy of what happened to the Gentile Christian churches before the apostles died, as is demonstrated from the words of Paul to Timothy, the words of Peter “to them that have obtained like precious faith… and the words of 3^rd John to Gaius, concerning the power the apostate Diotrephes had to cast those who were continuing in Christ’s words out of the church.

The church that was conceived on the day of Pentecost in the New Testament was strongly opposed by the church in the wilderness, which in a sense was conceived on the first Pentecost in the wilderness of Sinai.

Act 7:35  This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
Act 7:36  He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
Act 7:37  This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
Act 7:38  This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: [On the first Pentecost foreshadowing the birth of the New Testament church on that same day]

It was the concept that God would come to the Gentiles without going through physical Israel that infuriated these Jews who so hated Paul that they wanted to kill him. The same spirit of preeminence “rose up against Moses” through “Korah… Dathan and Abiram… and… two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown.” That same spirit resides in the modern Christian church today. That spirit despises the message that “all in Adam… shall be made alive” (1Co 15:50). That spirit especially hates those who are faithful to the words of that ‘Prophet like unto Moses.’

The Christian church grew rapidly from the day of Pentecost and throughout the entire first century. It began to apostatize away from the doctrines of the apostles while the apostles were still alive to the extent that, after all the years the apostle Paul had spent raising up churches in the province of Asia, the home of “the seven churches of Asia” of Revelation 1-3, this is what the apostle Paul tells us in 1^st Timothy.

1Ti 1:19  Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:20  Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

In 2^nd Timothy Paul reveals that the apostasy was continuing and had now encompassed “all they of Asia”, which would include “the seven churches of Asia” of the first three chapters of the book of Revelation. The fact that the entire book of Revelation is addressed to “the seven churches of Asia”, and the fact that Paul tells us “all they in Asia have forsaken me”, signifies that the apostasy of the church was a thorough apostasy and that it was completed before the apostles had all died.

2Ti 1:13  Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 1:14  That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.
2Ti 1:15  This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
2Ti 2:16  But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
2Ti 2:17  And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 2:18  Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

All my life I wondered how anyone could say “the resurrection is past already”. The fiery experience made it very clear how that is done. It is done by appeal to those who take pride in seeing a spiritual meaning to every word of scripture, including the word ‘resurrected’, but excludes these words:

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.

This seductive false doctrine reasons that we are spiritually crucified and raised in newness of life with Christ (Rom 6:1-4), and therefore there will be no future first resurrection. That is the false doctrine of Hymenaeus which teaches that “the resurrection is past already.” It was that same spirit which led the Catholic Church to proclaim that the kingdoms of the world had become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ when the Christian religion was declared to be the religion of The Holy Roman Empire.

It is because of the apostasy of the church that the entire book of Revelation is addressed to “the seven churches which are in Asia.”

Rev 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
Rev 1:11  Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

“The seven churches which are in Asia” and “all they which are in Asia” are the same. Both signify the complete apostasy of the Christian church which was accomplished before the apostles had died. Paul had been warned by the holy spirit that this would happen after he left Asia on his last trip up to Jerusalem to “bear witness” of the gospel to his “own kinsmen” the physical nation of Israel:

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

“Drawing away disciples after them” is just another way of saying they would be seeking preeminence among the brothers in the churches. It is the desire for preeminence which has contributed to fracturing the church of God into over 40,000 disagreeing and conflicting denominations of men. Any church which is a legal entity is owned by a man or a group of men. That fact alone disqualifies that church from being led by Christ, who is not a ‘legal entity’ which is an organization of men. The “body of Christ” is not a legal organization of men. Rather, He is a living spiritual organism of which He is the head and which is united by the Truth which He IS.

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.
Joh 14:7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

This is the spirit that was in the church in the wilderness which has risen up against the Lord’s Christ in the person of the apostle Paul. The Lord’s Christ is the apple of His eye, and He has never forsaken His elect. Even Festus, the new governor of Judea, is caused to be Paul’s protection against the roving lion who is seeking whom he may devour:

Act 25:4  But Festus answered, that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself would depart shortly thither.
Act 25:5  Let them therefore, said he, which among you are able, go down with me, and accuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him.
Act 25:6  And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Caesarea; and the next day sitting on the judgment seat commanded Paul to be brought.

Informing us that Festus remained in Jerusalem “more than ten days” tells us that Festus, who was caused by the Lord Himself to protect the Lord’s elect, was nevertheless comfortable and right at home there with those carnal-minded Jews. It was in Jerusalem, which signifies Babylon, that the Jews felt strong enough to kill Paul who signifies God’s elect in every generation. Nevertheless, the Lord causes Festus to declare that the judgment of Paul would be done in Caesarea, and the Jews who were willing and able would have to go with him down to Caesarea to falsely accuse Paul once again.

Act 25:7  And when he was come, the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood round about, and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove.

They were the same false accusations made by “the Jews of Asia” who accused Paul of taking a Greek into the temple and of teaching the Jews which were among the Gentiles to forsake Moses and not circumcise their children. They also accused Paul of fomenting an insurrection against Caesar by proclaiming that Christ is a king.

Act 25:8  While he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all.
Act 25:9  But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul, and said, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before me?

Paul knew that “above forty” [starving] men had taken a vow to neither eat nor drink until Paul was dead. He knew better than to agree to going back into spiritual Babylon to be judged.

Act 25:10  Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged: to the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest.
Act 25:11  For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die: but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar.
Act 25:12  Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go.

Now the Lord’s promise to Paul that he would testify for Him in Rome is about to come to pass, but not before Paul is given the opportunity to share the gospel of Christ with King Agrippa and Bernice.

Act 25:13  And after certain days king Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus.
Act 25:14  And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul’s cause unto the king, saying, There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix:
Act 25:15  About whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him.
Act 25:16  To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.
Act 25:17  Therefore, when they were come hither, without any delay on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat, and commanded the man to be brought forth.
Act 25:18  Against whom when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed:
Act 25:19  But had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.
Act 25:20  And because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these matters.
Act 25:21  But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I might send him to Caesar.
Act 25:22  Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. To morrow, said he [Festus], thou shalt hear him.
Act 25:23  And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, at Festus’ commandment Paul was brought forth.

The scholars agree that this King Agrippa is the son of Herod Agrippa who had the apostle James, the brother of John, who were the sons of Zebedee, killed, and who was eaten of worms. They also tell us that Bernice was the sister of Felix’s wife, Drucilla. Both women were Jewesses.

Here are John Gill’s comments concerning this King Agrippa:

“King Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus: this King Agrippa was the son of Herod Agrippa, who killed James the brother of John, and of whose death mention is made in Act 12:1 the Jewish chronologer (h) calls him Agrippa the Second, the son of Agrippa the First, the fifth king of the family of Herod:” (End Quote).

Act 25:24  And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, ye see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem, and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.
Act 25:25  But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and that he himself hath appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him.
Act 25:26  Of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my lord. Wherefore I have brought him forth before you, and specially before thee, O king Agrippa, that, after examination had, I might have somewhat to write.
Act 25:27  For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.

Paul will now, once again, have the privilege of speaking the Truth about the kingdom of God, and he is enjoying every minute of doing so.

King Agrippa and Bernice were both Jews and while Festus, the Roman governor of Judea, is asking for Agrippa’s Jewish point of view to assist him in what to say of Paul when he sends him to Augustus Caesar, the Lord is using Paul’s legal issue to give His chosen physical nation many opportunities to hear His Word. He has also hardened their hearts, but He must still give them a witness, thereby giving Himself the occasion He is seeking to judge them for their rejection of Him and His doctrine, just as He gave so many signs and wonders as a witness against Pharaoh, whom He had raised up for the very purpose of displaying His power over this physical realm.

Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24  Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

There is no room in any of those verses for the false doctrine of ‘free moral agency’.

Numbers 12:1-16  The Disease of Leprosy

[Study Aired July 17, 2023]

Num 12:1  And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 
Num 12:2  And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it. 
Num 12:3  (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) 
Num 12:4  And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. 
Num 12:5  And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.
Num 12:6  And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
Num 12:7  My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. 
Num 12:8  With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? 
Num 12:9  And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed. 
Num 12:10  And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous. 
Num 12:11  And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. 
Num 12:12  Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb. 
Num 12:13  And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.
Num 12:14  And the LORD said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.
Num 12:15  And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again.
Num 12:16  And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.

Introduction

One of the cardinal sins of a soldier is to try to usurp the power of his commanding officer. In military terms, this can result in mutiny which is punishable by death. Every nation has the Head of State as its commanding officer and is represented by the army chiefs. As the Lord prepares His army for battle, we are to submit wholly to our commanding officer who is Jesus Christ and is represented by the church. Any disobedience against leadership is disobedience against Christ. Chapter 12 focuses on the rebellion initiated by Aaron and Miriam against Moses. It reveals to us the root cause for the rebellion, its effect and the Lord’s recommended way of dealing with such a rebellion. This is what Moses told the people of Israel just before his death:

Deu 31:27  For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?

We have all rebelled against the Lord during our walk with Him, especially when we were in Babylon. We therefore deserve to be put to death, that is, being spiritually alienated from the commonwealth of the Lord’s elect. However, unlike Saul, God has been merciful to us – He has not rejected us from becoming kings to rule the earth at the fullness of time. 

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. 

Num 12:1  And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 

This marriage of Moses became a bone of contention used by Aaron and Miriam to discredit Moses’ leadership. The Old Testament uses the term “Cush” and “Cushites” to refer to Africa and Africans. During the Old and New Testament period, it was Ethiopia that was most prominent in Africa apart from Egypt. Thus, in most versions of the Bible, the word “Cushite” is used instead of “Ethiopian”. The word “Cush” means “black” and historically, the people of Cush have been dark-skinned. The prophet Jeremiah alluded to Cushites’ skin color when he rhetorically said:

Jer 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. 

There is a biblical connection between the Cushites and the Midianites. We know that Moses’ wife, Zipporah, was a Midianite. 

Exo 2:16  Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

Exo 2:21  And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. 

In Habakkuk, there is a connection between Cushan or Cush and the Midianites, which may suggest that Cushan and Midian could be the same people. In that case, Zipporah is the same wife mentioned here in Numbers 12:1, who became the bone of contention.

Hab 3:7  I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 

Verse 1 therefore highlights racial sentiments underlying the accusation of Miriam and Aaron. Racism has been with humanity right from the beginning, and as we see the day approaching, it is going to get worse. It is only when one is in Christ that the seed of racism is destroyed completely through the destruction of the beast within. The fact that Miriam and Aaron were accusing Moses of marrying a Cushite woman shows that they were carnal, even though Aaron was a leader of the Lord’s people and Miriam was a prophetess. We were all carnal at a certain stage of our walk with Christ and looked at things from a carnal perspective, instead of the viewpoint from the new man after the image of Christ.

Num 12:2  And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it.

Carnality brings forth carnality. When we are ruled by the flesh, we become contentious in everything, even in spiritual matters, as we see here in verse 2. In the previous study, we realized the spiritual maturity of Moses when he made the following statement: 

Num 11:27  And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
Num 11:28  And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.”
Num 11:29  But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”

Moses desired that all God’s people will prophesy. In other words, God’s people will become spiritually mature and become like Him. Miriam and Aaron, however, were contending with the leadership of the Lord’s people. We have seen this a lot when we were in Babylon – how church leaders separate themselves to start their own church after a disagreement with leadership. As the Lord will show us later in this episode, the root cause of our rejection of authority is because we are carnal – ruled by the flesh. As a body of Christ, we have also experienced what happened to Moses when periodically, some of our members rebel against authority and leave the fellowship. As we shall see later in this session, being ruled by the flesh is very subtle, especially when we have tasted the heavenly manna. That is what the disease of leprosy is. It starts within us for a long period of time before it becomes obvious when the skin develops spots.

Jud 1:8  Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 
Jud 1:9  But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 
Jud 1:10  But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. (ESV)

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

Num 12:3  (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) 

The word “meek” means humble or lowly. Moses’ meekness was very pronounced. In fact, during Moses’ time, he was the meekest person living on earth. The coming of Christ brought about a people whose meekness is after that of Christ, who is the meekest person to have ever lived. 

Php 2:6  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 
Php 2:7  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 
Php 2:8  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

Mat 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  

One of the key aspects of the fruit of the Spirit is to walk in meekness. It is not something we can produce by ourselves – it is a gift from the Lord.

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. 

Num 12:4  And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. 
Num 12:5  And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.

As commander of the Lord’s army, the Lord deals swiftly with any act of insubordination. This is because, if delayed, it will become like cancer which will quickly spread through the body.

2Ti 2:17  And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;

When Diotrephes usurped the authority of Apostle John, then John told the church he would come soon to deal with the issue. 

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. 

3Jn 1:14  But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name. 

Num 12:6  And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. 
Num 12:7  My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.
Num 12:8  With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? 

A prophet is one who speaks the word of the Lord, and his speaking or prophesying is for our edification, exhortation and comfort. In this regard, when we speak the word of the Lord to one another to comfort, edify or exhort, we are actually prophesying.

1Co 14:3  But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.

Verse 6 shows us that the Lord speaks to us through visions and dreams. However, these forms of communication are at a lower level when compared with the Lord speaking directly to us (mouth to mouth). 

Hos 12:10  I spoke to the prophets; it was I who multiplied visions, and through the prophets gave parables. (ESV)

As seen above, visions are like parables. The reason that dreams and visions are regarded as relatively lower forms of communication is that most of the time, these dreams and visions have to be interpreted before one can understand exactly what they mean. In addition, even if it is interpreted, we do not see the full picture of what the Lord is saying through dreams and visions. That is why Isaiah said that dreams are like visions of the night. In the night, it is difficult to see clearly.

Isa 29:7  And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night. 

The highest form of communication with the Lord becomes possible when the Holy Spirit is given to us. That is when we begin to understand clearly what the Lord is saying in the spirit and also the fact that the spirit searches our hearts to know what we need and is able to communicate what we need to the Lord in words that cannot be expressed. This means that even Moses’ mouth-to-mouth communication with the Lord was at a lower level in the sense that the Holy Spirit had not come during his time. We, His elect, are privileged to be able to understand the spiritual interpretation of His words through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Joh 16:12  “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 
Joh 16:13  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 
Joh 16:14  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 
Joh 16:15  All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.  

Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 
Rom 8:27  And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

It is indeed insightful to note that the Lord regarded Moses as being faithful in the house of God despite his complaints and shortcomings. In a similar vein, we, His elect, will be counted as being faithful in the house of the Lord in the fullness of time in spite of our struggles, failures, doubts, etc. Are you discouraged? Do you have doubts whether you will ever make it when the Lord comes in His glory?  Are you focusing on your failures such that you cannot lift your eyes unto the hill from whence comes the help of the Lord? Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart. The Lord will bear you on eagle’s wings and bring you to an expected end. Have faith in Him and not in yourself that whatever the Lord starts, He is able to bring to completion!! This reminds me of the Methodist hymn that we sang a lot when we were in Babylon!! These days the song ministers so much to me. Those before of us wrestled with sins, doubts, and fears, just like what we are going through. However, in the final analysis, they overcame them. This is the song:

Give me the Wings of Faith – by John Wesley Harding

1 GIVE me the wings of faith to rise
Within the veil, and see
The saints above, how great their joys,
How bright their glories be.
2 Once they were mourners here below,
And poured out cries and tears:
They wrestled hard, as we do now,
With sins, and doubts, and fears.
3 I ask them whence their victory came:
They, with united breath,
Ascribe their conquest to the Lamb,
Their triumph to his death.
4 They marked the footsteps that he trod,His zeal inspired their breast;
And following their incarnate God,
Possess the promised rest.
5 Our glorious Leader claims our praise
For His own pattern given;
While the long cloud of witnesses
Show the same path to heaven.

I think we all have to be reminded of this story of Abraham’s failure when he lied about Sarah being his sister to King Abimelech, and the king took her to his home. The Lord intervened, and as a result, He asked Abraham to pray for king Abimelech, and when Abraham prayed, Abimelech and his family were healed in spite of Abraham’s failure. That is intercession in the midst of failure!! The Lord answered because He did not look at Abraham’s failure at that moment but called Abraham a prophet because he was looking at the finish line – that is, Abraham becoming a prophet. In spite of all that we are going through, the Lord hears our prayers, and He will surely bring us to the finish line!

Jas 5:11  Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.  

Gen 20:2  And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 
Gen 20:3  But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 

Gen 20:7  Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

Gen 20:17  Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. 
Gen 20:18  For the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. 

In verse 8, the Lord is warning us to be afraid of speaking against His elect. Speaking against our brothers and sisters is the same as speaking against the Lord since we are representing Jesus Christ here on earth.

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.

Num 12:9  And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed. 
Num 12:10  And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous. 
Num 12:11  And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. 
Num 12:12  Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb. 

The anger of the Lord is what brings His judgment on our old man. The Lord is always seeking an occasion to judge us, and, in this case, speaking against the Lord’s representative was the occasion the Lord used to judge Miriam. When we are judged, the Lord comes and deals with the root cause of our disobedience, which in this case is the flesh or the beast within Miriam. 

Before we continue, let us answer the question of why the Lord punished Miriam and not Aaron and Miriam together, since both were guilty of speaking against Moses. We know that a woman represents the church. Thus, Miriam represents the church in the wilderness, including Aaron, and therefore judging Miriam means judging all the people including Aaron. What this means is that speaking against Moses was a common sin among the people of Israel at that time, and the Lord was dealing with the problem among the people of Israel. As we can see, not long afterward came the rebellion of Korah with the key leaders of the assembly, which shows that this sin was plaguing the whole of the people of Israel. In other words, the whole of the congregation was leprous. That is the situation now in Babylon.

Num 16:1  Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:
Num 16:2  And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:
Num 16:3  And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?

The speaking against the Lord’s appointed leader (Moses) was only a symptom, but the root cause is that the people had become leprous and the Lord used Miriam’s leprosy to show that the people of Israel were sick. Being leprous spiritually signifies that we are being dominated by the flesh, and this can only be identified by a priest or an elect. This is how leprosy is identified:

Lev 13:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying,
Lev 13:2  When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests:
Lev 13:3  And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.
Lev 13:4  If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days:

When there is a rise in the skin of the flesh or there is whitish spot on the skin, then there is the likelihood of leprosy. The rising of the skin of the flesh spiritually means the deeds of the flesh are becoming visible. The negative aspect of the color white is that we are not what we claim to be. This means that the whitish spot on the skin means that we are dominated by the flesh within, but we portray ourselves as angels of light (white).

2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 
2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

It takes a priest or an elect to identify whether the rise on the skin or the whitish spot is actually leprosy or a temporal disease of the skin. According to Leviticus 13:3, if the hair on the skin has turned white and the plague is deeper than the skin, then it is leprosy. In other words, if we appear to be what we are not (negative significance of white) and our fleshly deeds are becoming obvious, and the beast is still sitting on the throne of our hearts, then we are leprous. On the other hand, if the plague is not deeper than the skin, then it means that it is just a sin of the flesh, and therefore we have to be disciplined until we become whole. The seven days means the complete period of our discipline. That was what happened to Miriam. Aaron asking Moses to pray to the Lord to heal Miriam signifies that when a brother or sister is caught in a fault, we who are spiritually mature must restore the person, but in doing so we must keep an eye on ourselves less we contract his or her disease.

Gal 6:1  Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

In verse 12, Aaron saying that Miriam should not be left as one dead of whom the flesh is half consumed is another way of saying that in disciplining a person who is at fault, we must do it in such a manner that it does not result in the person becoming spiritually dead and alienated completely from the people of God. 

Num 12:13  And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.
Num 12:14  And the LORD said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.
Num 12:15  And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again.
Num 12:16  And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.

We must pray fervently for our brothers and sisters who are overtaken by a fault as we see Moses interceding for the healing of Miriam in verse 13. The fact that Miriam was taken outside the camp for only seven days means that the leprosy was superficial. In other words, she was overtaken by a fault and not that her flesh was dominating her. After one is healed of leprosy, there is the need to go through a purification process in order to be restored back to fellowship or camp. This cleansing process is as follows:

Lev 14:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 14:2  This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest: 
Lev 14:3  And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper; 
Lev 14:4  Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: 
Lev 14:5  And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: 
Lev 14:6  As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: 
Lev 14:7  And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field. 
Lev 14:8  And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days.

The bird that is killed in an earthen vessel over running water is Christ, who took the form of humanity (earthen vessel) and was killed according to the living word of the Lord (running water) in order to cleanse us. We, His elect, are the living second bird which is let loose into the open field. In other words, in view of the Lord’s mercies towards us, we must live our lives as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to the Lord, which is our spiritual form of worship. This entails completing the suffering of Christ through the fiery trials we go through in this life. 

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

In the Bible, the hair on the body is a symbol of our natural strength. Thus, the shaving of all the flesh signifies the cutting off of all our natural strength. This implies that in our service to the Lord, we must not depend on our natural strengths and abilities.

Jdg 16:17  And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.”

Clothes are a symbol of righteousness. Dirty or torn clothes therefore refer to unrighteousness, which could be the result of contamination or self-righteousness, which is iniquity.

Lev 15:6  And whoever sits on anything on which the one with the discharge has sat shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

Isa 4:1  And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.”

Clean clothes (white linen) are the righteousness of the saints, which is imputed by the Lord. 

Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

The washing of our dirty clothes therefore signifies the truth of the word of the Lord, which cleanses us of all unrighteousness.

What is significant is the fact that the whole of the congregation waited until Miriam was healed before they continued their journey from Hazeroth to the wilderness of Paran. This means that we must carry our brothers and sisters who are weak or overtaken by a fault along and not leave them behind. It also implies that we must carry each other’s burden.

Gal 6:1  Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 
Gal 6:2  Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

May the Lord help us to conform to His image as He roots out any disease of leprosy within us. Amen!!

Song of Solomon 4:1-16 – Part 8, Solomon Admires His Bride’s Beauty

[Study Aired December 17, 2022]

Eph 5:27  “That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

Saints, both men and women, think about this: Since you are becoming Christs, imagine being the Lord himself and it is given to you by the Father to create the most perfect wife for yourself. How would she appear in mind and body? 

The answer to the above is that we are given the pattern of the heavenly, and by the Lord’s guidance, create such a magnificent woman with fear and trembling! The Bible is Christ’s pattern for her to be born as the Bride. The Bride’s mind is her body since the outer body reflects her spiritual mind. Her entire ensemble began in Eden and consummates with her wedding. The Song of Solomon is her response in perfect spiritually erotic charm for His pleasure ~ the perfect (virtuous) wife.

Our Lord, by Solomon’s imaginative poetry, admires his Bride’s beauty of his handiwork from conception through the fiery trials of life and the imminence of marriage.

It is well documented in the previous seven studies that a world hell-bent on overemphasizing physical erotica is looking in the opposite direction to maximize its salacious lust. Intrinsically in men and women is their God-given programming to be attracted to their sexual opposite. For the Lord’s purpose, there are all sorts of distortions of attraction that nature cannot sustain, no matter how hard its contenders loudly proclaim their ‘rights’. It is overwhelmingly inherent for boys and girls with parents who don’t attempt to rewire their child’s gender that boys play and act like boys, and girls likewise as girls. Certainly, there are minimal natural anomalies with genders that the Lord wills via His crooked Serpent to facilitate mankind to conjure other sexual possibilities for the degradation of the naturally erotic. Those exceptions are just as destructive to humanity as any other disregard for God’s word.

As we well know, the immutable fact is,

1Co 11:8-9  For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.

It means that the very small dedicated Church was made for Christ in marriage and, subsequently, all remaining humanity depicted as their children.

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

Gen 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 
Gen 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 
Gen 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 
Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 
Gen 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

The physical difference between a man and a woman and how the other’s brain is wired causes them to be naturally attracted to each other. The overarching missing link is the Lord’s more significant gift of His spirit that makes a husband and wife supremely one in Christ. It is why the Shulamite’s arousal is so focused on Him. Her utter submission to Him, she discovered (given by Him), intensified her every ‘happy hormone’ beyond what any man-devised erotica imagined or drug could hope to duplicate! We would need far more imagination than the Shulamite to fantasize about what the Lord has for us in eternity once His spirit is fully us. The “deep things of God” bring us to the marriage, yet we have very little idea of what He has for us beyond the Eighth Day, which excites the Bride with additional anticipation. A glimpse is for us to have the ability to move like lightning in any direction without turning (Eze 1). Yet, where do we go, and what do we do with our Husband in that mind boggling spiritual body beyond the Eight Day? We have little idea.

In the meantime, we will continue to study our responses to our Husband, who has written for us for our immense intrigue.

In this study of Chapter 4, the Shulamite is in a state of unspeakable belief in every word of her Lord’s adoring speech. The fact that the Lord chose her and not one of the other symbolic 1,000 gorgeous women speaks for itself, even though she knows she didn’t have one smidgeon of input for her beauty ~ it is all for and by Him for the Father’s glory.

Solomon Admires His Bride’s Beauty

Son 4:1 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead. 
Son 4:2 Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.
Son 4:3 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.
Son 4:4 Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.
Son 4:5 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.
Son 4:6 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
Son 4:7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee. 
Son 4:8 Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards. 
Son 4:9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. 
Son 4:10 How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices! 
Son 4:11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. 
Son 4:12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. 
Son 4:13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
Son 4:14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: 
Son 4:15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. 

Together in the Garden of Love

Son 4:16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. 

Irrefutably, the Lord made the woman for the man, and she is a shadow of His Church (1Co 11:1-16), the Bride of Christ being made for him and the rest of humanity, their children.

In the prior studies of the Song of Solomon, it was cited that the Lord clearly made a woman’s every physical detail a delight for the man. Not only is her outward impression particularly inviting, but if her mind is the mind of Christ, as it should be, every physical detail and speech amplifies her beauty by leaps and bounds. As the husband should be God’s image in all spiritual understanding and is God’s glory, such an equally spiritually yoked couple is a match made in heaven! 

1Co 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

Intrinsically in women is their desire to nurture and highlight every element of their natural beauty and subdue the inelegant features. To many, it is torturous to present themselves with makeup and have their hair look its best, with touchups throughout the day. Men are particularly glad that they make an effort. From a spiritually truthful standpoint, the Babylonian adage is interesting, “if a woman’s hair looks good, so does the rest of her.” Our former Babylonian way didn’t know that saying symbolically agrees with the Lord’s order of headship with Him as her covering.

For the Lord, what counts as beauty is a person’s spiritual understanding and his God-given ability to walk in and do the will of God. The Shulamite’s utter submission to her husband amplifies her every bodily feature for his accumulative spiritual arousal.

1Pe 3:2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. 
1Pe 3:3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
1Pe 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 
1Pe 3:5 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:

The Lord’s spirit within, from years of study, with relative ease discerns the spiritual meanings of the Bride’s bodily features in Chapter 4 (e.g. Eyes – spiritual understanding; Twin washed white sheep – witness; fruitfulness; etc.). We could, for example, attain a quasi-spiritual correlation with the word “goats” and the Lord’s goat and heavenly sacrifices for no significant spiritual benefit and make this series even more rhetorical. I hope to tease out the concealed spirit and clarify the metaphors at the Lord’s will rather than restate the spiritually obvious in verses 2 – 8.

Thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from Mount Gilead.

We can only guess Solomon’s vivid imagination of why his Bride’s hair looks like a flock of goats on Mt Gilead. Sheep and goats follow each other on well-worn trails they make by constantly walking the same path. They walk on different meandering paths loosely parallel to each other, and thus, his Bride’s hair looks like wavy tendrils cascading down her head, Mount Gilead. With exceptional imagination, if the Bride, with a typical female action, runs her hands through her wavy hair and gently shakes her head, her hair cascades like trails of thousands of goats running in fits and starts down the small ravines and gullies of Mount Gilead. Such are those tantalising nuances of female actions they are unaware of that captivate a male, particularly Christ, for their spiritual connections.

Gilead is a resource-rich and beautiful part of Lebanon. The derivative meaning of Gilead is H1567 means, witness heap; the pile of stones heaped up between Jacob and Laban to certify their covenant; located on Mt Gilead. (H1530 – heap, spring, wave, billow a. heap (of stones) 1. over dead body 2. alone 3. used in ratifying a covenant b. waves (fig. Of chastisement of Jehovah) c. spring).

We can see that the Bride’s hair is wavy; she is a pillar in the Temple of God, a daily sacrifice. She is beautiful and bountiful, like the sweet-smelling mountains and valleys of Lebanon’s richness.

The most outstanding spiritual aspect of Chapter 4 is that the Bride has been a sacrifice without blemish spiritually; she is given to be spotless.

Son 4:7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee. 

Exo 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish [H8549], a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

Blemish – H8549
– Original: תּמים
– Transliteration: Tamiym
– Phonetic: taw-meem’
– Definition: complete, whole, entire, sound 

complete, whole, entire
whole, sound, healthful
complete, entire (of time)
sound, wholesome, unimpaired,
innocent, having integrity
what is complete or entirely in accord with truth and fact (neuter adj/subst)

– Origin: from H8552
– TWOT entry: 2522d
– Part(s) of speech: Adjective 
– Strong’s: From H8552; entire (literally figuratively or morally); also (as noun) integrity truth: – without blemish complete full perfect sincerely (-ity) sound without spot undefiled upright (-ly) whole. 
Total KJV Occurrences: 91

In Ephesians 5, regarding husbands loving their wives and him presenting to himself as Christ, his wife washed by the word without blemish, that “blemish” is:

Blemish – G299
– Original: ἄμωμος
– Transliteration: amomos
– Phonetic: am’-o-mos
– Definition: 

without blemish 
as a sacrifice without spot or blemish
morally: without blemish, faultless, unblameable

[H3971 – spot, physical defect, moral stain].
– Origin: from G1 (as a negative particle) and G3470
– TDNT entry: 17:50,6
– Part(s) of speech: Adjective 
– Strong’s: From G1 (as a negative particle) and G3470; unblemished (literally or figuratively): – without blame (blemish fault spot) faultless unblameable.

Eph 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish [G299].

Every aspect of the Shulamite’s physical body represents a spiritual correlation. Even a babe in Christ can easily reference the spiritual reality of most shadows of the Bride’s body. What Christ has presented to himself in Song of Solomon chapter 4 is His wife washed by His word and her sins having been made white as snow.

Son 4:9 Thou hast ravished [H3823] my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. 

The primary point of the Groom being ravished is in the erotic sense since the term refers to his pounding heart for his spiritual arousal for her sole devotion to Him. 

Ravished – H3823 – – Original: לבב
– Transliteration: Labab
– Phonetic: law-bab’
– Definition: 

to ravish, become intelligent, get a mind
(Niphal) to take heart, become enheartened, become intelligent
(Piel) to ravish the heart, encourage, make heart beat faster
(Piel) to make cakes, bake cakes, cook bread

H3824, this verse in Nahum, refers to breasts for the sake of a different connection for being ravished. A denotative of H3823 relating to being ravished sexually is H3824 for “breasts” in foreplay depicted as a dove’s breasts and throats pulsating (like a heartbeat) to its ceaseless calls. As such, the couple’s hearts are ‘ravished’ like the sound of two doves rhythmically out of sync calling to each other.

Nah 2:7 And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering [meaning to play or sound the timbrel, beat, play upon, drum on a timbrel or other object] upon their breasts [H3824].

In the process of the Bride being spiritually ravished by her Lord’s word, she has become spotless and without blemish, as the derivative H3824 with its multiple meanings refers. For us, where the rhythmic play of flesh profits nothing, the spirit is life and is the most significant meaning.

Ravish H3824
Original: לבב
– Transliteration: Lebab
– Phonetic: lay-bawb’
– Definition: 

inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding
inner part, midst
midst (of things)
heart (of man)
soul, heart (of man) 
mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory

Continuing to explore the term “ravished” where its positive and negative meanings are starkly polarised: The Church can be ravished positively always with the truth of her echoing the dove-like call of her Lord’s word and he back to her. In the negative, a deceptive shepherd, too, can echo the Lord’s words that cause the laity to go astray.

Pro 5:18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. 
Pro 5:19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished [H7686] always with her love.

Ravished – H7686
– Original: שׁגה
– Transliteration: Shagah
– Phonetic: shaw-gaw’
– Definition:

to go astray, stray, err [deceived; wander; ignorance]
(Qal)
to err, stray
to swerve, meander, reel, roll, be intoxicated, err (in drunkenness)
to go astray (morally)
to commit sin of ignorance or inadvertence, err (ignorantly)
(Hiphil)
to lead astray
to lead astray, mislead (mentally)
to lead astray (morally)

How fitting in the negative that the delights of a woman’s body can lead us astray, as we know happened to us while in Babylon being fed the milk of the word as we lay with some of the nominal 46,000 Christian churches.

Speaking of the destruction of Babylon and especially within, in the following verse:

Isa 13:15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword [word of God]. 
Isa 13:16  Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished [H7901 – to lie down sexually; H7693 – to violate, ravish; copulate]. 

Continuing…

Son 4:11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

The word of our Lord is sweet to us, as is honeycomb, and for us to poetically succumb in pure love to milk as opposed to the strong meat of the word in lovemaking is more fitting for this occasion.

Positively:

Pro 16:23 The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips. 
Pro 16:24 Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

Negatively:

Pro 5:1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: 
Pro 5:2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
Pro 5:3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: 
Pro 5:4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

The smell of death to the flesh, which was the Bride’s former garment, allegorically doesn’t sound too inviting, yet, to our Lord, it is now like the smell of Lebanon, a sweet savour.

Son 4:12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. 

The Bride’s “garden” (H1588 – enclosure; enclosed garden;) is her virginity sealed for the day of her marriage; she is protected by a hedge of the Lord’s word. Likewise, the Garden of Eden was sealed for Adam and Eve until sin manifested by them taking the forbidden fruit. Initially, Adam and Eve were sealed within the garden with its hedged borders that protected them from the ravagings of the world beyond. Upon being cast out of the garden, their return was prevented by an Angel with a flaming sword until the Bride of Christ was made worthy to be the new heavenly garden.

Gen 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

She now is that spiritual Garden of Eden, about to be no longer sealed to produce a change in the rest of humanity, from her fountain of the bountiful spiritual fruit of her Lord’s word, his weapons that will turn every way that will soon enforce the tree of life.

… A fountain sealed. 

There are several derivative meanings for “fountain”; the one in that verse is H4599, which means 1. Spring.

Eve is the original mother of all living; from her ‘fountain’ springs all humanity. The Bride of Christ is the final fountain of life eternal through her Lord and from her springs the salvation of the rest of humanity. For the moment, in the Song of Solomon, she is a sealed virgin for her wedding day, and her consummation brings forth a fountain of living waters for her children on the Eighth Day.

Joh 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Son 4:13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,

Plants – H7973, 1. weapon, missile, sprout a. missile, weapon b. sprout, shoot.

Pomegranates – H7426 derivative, 1. to be exalted, be lifted up a. (Qal) to be exalted b. (Niphal) to lift oneself.

Camphire – H3722 derivative, 1. to cover, purge, make an atonement, make reconciliation.

The above metaphors depict the course of the Bride’s life that has created her into the beauty she is for her wedding day.

Together in the Garden of Love

Son 4:16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

The cold frosty winds of the north are not too long gone, as are the southerly whirlwinds (incidentally, it is all reversed in the southern hemisphere) on the turbulent days of her creation. Now the gentle summer breeze for the reality of her Lord’s pressing closeness wells up the floral perfumes of her spiritual arousals from the south; they call out, and his answers are symphonic – like doves to each other.

The Bride imagines her beloved above her; he resides to her north of the garden of love that she is. The judgment from the north has done its work within her ever since she was found naked in the field in her blood. The dichotomy of the north wind of her Lord’s breath, formally judgment, became a gentle floral, arousing summer breeze from the south. 

Just as Adam and Eve discovered, biologically and spiritually for our bodies, trouble comes from the south; in this case, our pudenda, when we disobey the Lord’s word. The parable now is that Her Lord’s southern summer breeze of his breath is now soft upon her face, lips and every part of her body, the ‘earth’, the fruitful garden that blooms in luxurious spiritual expressions. 

As judgment came from the north to Job, it was and is a blessing for us all as the Lord blesses us spiritually upon our repentance. The Lord causes us to not fear walking in the coals of fiery conversion that we eventually see, as did Job is a blessing.

The Bride in the Song of Solomon most profoundly sees the totality of her life of struggles about-face, now flowering in her with and by her Lord.

Job 37:9 Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north. 
Job 37:10 By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened. 
Job 37:11 Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud: 
Job 37:12 And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. 
Job 37:13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy. 
Job 37:14 Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. 
Job 37:15 Dost thou know when God disposed them, and caused the light of his cloud to shine? 
Job 37:16 Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge? 
Job 37:17 How thy garments are warm, when he quieteth the earth by the south wind? 
Job 37:18 Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass? 
Job 37:19 Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. 
Job 37:20 Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up. 
Job 37:21 And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds: but the wind passeth, and cleanseth them. 
Job 37:22 Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God is terrible [awe-filled] majesty.
Job 37:23 Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict. 
Job 37:24 Men do therefore fear him: he respecteth not any that are wise of heart.

In a loving embrace with her Lord, the enigma of his fair-weather from the north mixes with his gentle breeze from her south into a passionate whirlwind of blissful spiritual delights, transporting them up into the heavens or eternal love. That is how His garments to her are warm as he “quieteth” her earth through the paradox of intense spiritual arousal by His south wind upon her perfumed fruitful garden.

Acts 2:25-47 And Many Wonders and Signs were Done by the Apostles

[Study Aired December 11, 2022]

Act 2:25  For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
Act 2:26  Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
Act 2:27  Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Act 2:28  Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
Act 2:29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Act 2:30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
Act 2:31  He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
Act 2:32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Act 2:33  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
Act 2:34  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Act 2:35  Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Act 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Act 2:44  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Act 2:45  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

We concluded our last study in the middle of Peter’s first sermon on the day of Pentecost, which was the day of the giving of the holy spirit and the day of the birth of the New Testament church. The gift of the holy spirit had been given and was displayed before all the people in Jerusalem by giving unlearned Galileans the ability to speak the wonderful works of God in all the languages of all the people who were present there that day. Peter had just reminded them of all the incredible signs and wonders which had accompanied the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, including the sun being darkened and the moon appearing to turn to blood. He told them that by “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God [they had] by wicked hands… crucified and [had]slain [their own Lord and Savior]”

Here are the last three verses of our last study:

Act 2:22  Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
Act 2:23  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Act 2:24  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

This first sermon to the Jews after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ took place on the day of Pentecost, and there were many “devout Jews” there from all over the Roman empire:

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

These devout Jews were there because it was required of them to appear at the temple in Jerusalem three times in the year:

Exo 23:14  Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:15  Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, [1] in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt [Passover and the days of  unleavened bread]: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16  And [2] the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field [Pentecost, 50 days after the waving of the wave sheaf during the days of unleavened bread]: and [3] the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field [The feast of Tabernacles, and The Last Great Day].
Exo 23:17  Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

Even though Christ Himself had “broken the sabbath” (Joh 5:18) and failed to show up on the first day of the feast of Tabernacles, as required by the law of Moses (Joh 7:8), the apostles of Christ were still keeping the “days, months, times and years” which the law of Moses required to be observed. Reforming any system requires time. This is “the time of reformation” in its early stages.

Heb 9:8  The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
Heb 9:9  Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;
Heb 9:10  Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

Knowing there were many Jews in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost who had never seen the “miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by [Christ]” let us note that Peter’s words concerning Christ and all He did are addressed to the “dwellers at Jerusalem [who had seen] the signs and wonders done by [Christ] among them”, and Peter says these words apply specifically to Christ:

Act 2:25  For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
Act 2:26  Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
Act 2:27  Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Act 2:28  Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

This is the Psalm Peter quoted:

Psa 16:8  I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Psa 16:9  Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
Psa 16:10  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Psa 16:11  Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Peter rightfully attributes this prophecy to the only person in history to whom it could apply. He attributes it to the only person whose body has never seen corruption, and who has been raised from the dead and seen by hundreds of people who simply could not deny what they had witnessed.

1Co 15:3  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1Co 15:4  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
1Co 15:5  And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
1Co 15:6  After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
1Co 15:7  After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
1Co 15:8  And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

Everyone in Jerusalem with any knowledge of current events had heard all of this and had heard that Christ’s apostles were claiming that He had been raised from the dead, and they all knew that there was no cadaver in the grave. All this was such common knowledge at that time that this is what the men on the road to Emmaus had to say to Christ on the day of the resurrection while “their eyes were holden” so they did not know Him:

Luk 24:13  And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. [Over seven miles]
Luk 24:14  And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
Luk 24:15  And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
Luk 24:16  But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
Luk 24:17  And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
Luk 24:18  And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
Luk 24:19  And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
Luk 24:20  And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
Luk 24:21  But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
Luk 24:22  Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
Luk 24:23  And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
Luk 24:24  And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.

Peter continues to rebuke these “men of Judea” who had called for Christ’s crucifixion, and he calls them to repentance:

Act 2:29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

Notice, Peter did not say, “David is in heaven, but his body and his sepulcher is with us unto this day.” What he said was “David… is dead and buried…” Later Peter even tells us, “David is not ascended into the heavens” (Vs 34). How could Peter make such a statement if he believed in the fabled doctrine of an ‘immortal soul’? Peter’s whole point is that God did not leave Christ’s ‘soul’ in the grave. If David’s ‘immortal soul’ were in heaven, then Peter’s words “thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” would have no significance and would be a blatant lie, because David’s sepulcher was still with them. The whole point of “his sepulchre is with us unto this day” is that King David’s soul was indeed still in his sepulcher, and therefore this Psalm is “speaking of the resurrection of Christ, that HIS soul was not left in [the grave], neither His flesh did see corruption”:

Act 2:30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
Act 2:31  He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell [Greek, ‘hades’, the grave], neither his flesh did see corruption.
Act 2:32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Act 2:33  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
Act 2:34  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Act 2:35  Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

Peter’s whole point is that since King David is not in heaven, this prophecy must refer to Christ. If indeed Kind David’s fabled ‘immortal soul’ were in heaven, then the words, “Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool” could very well apply to King David. Peter emphasizes the fact that “David is not ascended in the heavens” and:

Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Act 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Is it not instructive that not one person said, “What do you mean, David is not in heaven? Of course his body is with us , but we all understand that David is in heaven.” The fact is no one could argue with Peter because “David’s… sepulchre [was with them] unto [that] day.”

Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

It is very instructive that on the first Pentecost where Israel had made themselves a golden calf to worship, three thousand people physically died under “the letter of the law” while on the first Pentecost in the time of reformation three thousand people spiritually began dying to their old man through being converted and being given spiritual life.

Exo 32:27  And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.
Exo 32:28  And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day [the first Pentecost] about three thousand men.

Truly “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth 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.

Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Act 2:44  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Act 2:45  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Going back to verse 39, rest assured that “all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord God shall call” had nothing to do with Gentiles who were “afar off”. In the mind of Peter or any of the other apostles or disciples, and in the minds of any of the devout Jews who came to keep the feast of Pentecost, that was understood. Going into the home of a Gentile or eating a meal with a Gentile was simply out of the question. To Peter and to all who were there on the day of Pentecost, those words were only meant to apply to ‘All Jews who were afar off.’ At this point Peter, and any of the other apostles, would ever have countenanced “going in unto Gentiles.”  As we see many months later, the church itself accused Peter of eating “with men uncircumcised” when the holy spirit had sent Him to the house of the Gentile Centurion, Cornelius:

Act 11:2  And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision [the church at Jerusalem] contended with him,
Act 11:3  Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.
Act 11:4  But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying,
Act 11:5  I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me:
Act 11:6  Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Act 11:7  And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.
Act 11:8  But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.
Act 11:9  But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
Act 11:10  And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven.
Act 11:11  And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me.
Act 11:12  And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man’s house:
Act 11:13  And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;
Act 11:14  Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
Act 11:15  And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
Act 11:16  Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Act 11:17  Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?
Act 11:18  When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

That God had granted the Gentiles repentance to life was a revolutionary concept to these devout Jewish Christians. This event in Joppa and Caesarea was long after the day of Pentecost.

Here on the day of Pentecost, when the holy spirit was first given to men, Peter himself was still living under the law of Moses as His response to the Lord shows when he was three times commanded concerning the unclean beasts and creeping things in the sheet, “Arise Peter, slay and eat”. Peter’s response was, “Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.”

This is long after the death and resurrection of the Lord. Peter refused the commandment to “slay and eat” unclean animals three times because to do so was forbidden in the law of Moses:

Deu 14:6  And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat.
Deu 14:7  Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you.
Deu 14:8  And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.
Deu 14:9  These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat:
Deu 14:10  And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you.
Deu 14:11  Of all clean birds ye shall eat.
Deu 14:12  But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,
Deu 14:13  And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind,
Deu 14:14  And every raven after his kind,
Deu 14:15  And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,
Deu 14:16  The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,
Deu 14:17  And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,
Deu 14:18  And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
Deu 14:19  And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten.

To a devout Jew such as Peter and all the apostles at this time these unclean animals signified unclean Gentiles, as Peter made clear when he arrived at Cornelius’s house:

Act 10:17  Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate,
Act 10:18  And called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.
Act 10:19  While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.
Act 10:20  Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.
Act 10:21  Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius; and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come?
Act 10:22  And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.
Act 10:23  Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him.
Act 10:24  And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends.
Act 10:25  And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.
Act 10:26  But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.
Act 10:27  And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together.
Act 10:28  And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

These events take place long before the story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, and years before the Jerusalem council of Acts 15. Yet over 14 years later (Gal 2:1), after being told of the Lord that Peter should consider no man to be ‘common or unclean’, he and Barnabas both still feared what the Jews from Jerusalem would think of them if they saw them eating with Gentiles:

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 [Jerusalem], 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.
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?

On the day of Pentecost, when Peter said that salvation had come “to them that are afar off”, he was definitely not thinking that salvation had come to the Gentiles. He is speaking only of Jews who are “afar off” and would never dream at this point that the Lord would send him to eat with and speak to Gentiles. “Never [he said], has anything common or unclean entered my mouth!!”

Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort [all these “devout Jews out of every nation under heaven”], saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

The Lord has begun to ‘build His church,’ but every one of us, the apostles of Christ included, must learn to crawl before we can learn how to walk, and that is exactly what the early church was spiritually doing at the very beginning. We all must “fall seven times” before we learn how to walk.

Pro 24:16  For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

Here at its birth on this day of Pentecost, the ‘feast of firstfruits’, the apostles and all those who accepted the gospel they preached were as true and sincere and as humble as the ‘little child’ who Christ tells us we must all first be:

Mat 18:1  At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
Mat 18:2  And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
Mat 18:3  And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

This is not a call to be naive and gullible. The only characteristic of ‘this little child’ Christ admonishes us to emulate is the humility of a little child:

Mat 18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 18:5  And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

Christ did not call a sixteen-year-old because even in His day that was not the appropriate symbolism for someone who was humble.

The Gentile converts at Antioch were also just such humble souls, and this is what Christ tells us concerning the weak and humble among us:

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

Peter had separated himself from the very Gentiles to whom the Lord has first sent him. When Paul rebuked him, he and Barnabas immediately repented of their hypocrisy and went up to Jerusalem with Paul to plead the case of the physically uncircumcised Gentile converts. As we saw last week even Paul and Barnabas “with the holy spirit” agreed that the Jews still had to keep the law of Moses at that time. It simply was not yet the Lord’s time for the Jews to see that God was making “of twain one new man” (Eph 2:15).

Getting back to the events of the first Pentecost of the New Testament dispensation:

Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

We all love and appreciate answered prayers. Nevertheless, the need for “many wonders and signs”, which were needed at this time to signify that this was a work of God, is an indication of the lack of spiritual maturity of the church at its birth. This is what Christ had to say about signs:

Mat 16:1  The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
Mat 16:2  He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
Mat 16:3  And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Mat 16:4  A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

Christ rebuked “the Pharisees with the Sadducees” for requiring a sign for themselves. In doing so, He pointed out that they had already been given “signs of the times” and had not discerned them. The faithful were given “wonders and signs” at the beginning of the New Testament dispensation to establish the church throughout the Roman Empire. Once the church was established, the time came for ‘the trial of [the] faith’ of the faithful (Jas 1:2-3), and all the healings and speaking with other languages ceased to be so common, as the apostle Paul tells us:

1Co 13:8  Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
1Co 13:9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
1Co 13:10  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
1Co 13:11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

‘Love’ is defined as obedience to God (1Jo 5:2-3) and is a gift from God which is not an endowment of the natural man whose natural, carnal mind is “enmity against God” (Rom 8:7). Paul is telling us that all other gifts, the gift of prophecy, the gift of languages, and the gift of knowledge, are all “childish things” when compared to the gift of love.

With this great Truth in mind, consider just how applicable those words are to the church in its infancy. They genuinely believed they have the love of God, and in an infantile manner they certainly do. Stephen’s ‘love’ of God led to his martyrdom. Yet not one of the earliest Christians, the apostles included, considered Gentiles to be any different than a common dog, as Christ Himself insinuated, before acting otherwise:

Mar 7:25  For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:
Mar 7:26  The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
Mar 7:27  But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.
Mar 7:28  And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.
Mar 7:29  And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
Mar 7:30  And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

The story of this Gentile woman is included in the scriptures to prepare the Lord’s disciples to later receive things which they could not at that time bear (Joh 16:12). It is this lack of maturity that is on display in the last verses of our study today:

Act 2:44  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Act 2:45  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

The Lord had commanded his disciples to “go into all the world” just as He had commanded Noah’s family to fill the earth:

Gen 9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.(NET)

Mar 16:15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Every “babe in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4) is slow to leave the nest, and Noah’s descendants preferred to build a tower “lest they [become] scattered upon the face of the earth (Gen 11:4), and the Lord’s disciples preferred to sell all they owned and  have everything in common and stay right there in Jerusalem.

Neither situation surprised the Lord, so He confused the languages at the tower, and He ‘scattered [His disciples] abroad” through persecution:

Act 11:19  Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.

Even after being “scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen”, Luke, the author of the book of Acts, takes note that the entire church still “preached the Word to none but unto the Jews only.”

The overarching point of this entire book is that the entire church of Christ began as spiritual infants who, until the end of this book, were still unable to bear the many things Christ was yet to reveal to them:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

The time will come when the holy spirit will show us how we are to be the light and the salt of this earth in this dispensation (Mat 5:13-14). However, that time and the revelation that a physical pedigree as Abrahams’s children and keeping of all the rituals surrounding the physical temple are things that are ‘passing away’ will not come to the early Jewish church until after all the events of this entire book have transpired, and the apostle Paul is in prison in Rome where the Lord will reveal to Him and Peter and all the apostles that He is in the process of making one body, one temple and one church of the Jews and the Gentiles, without the letter to the Gentiles of Acts 15 any longer dividing us:

Act 15:19  wherefore I [James the Lord’s physical brother] judge: not to trouble those who from the nations do turn back to God,
Act 15:20  but to write to them to abstain from the pollutions of the idols, and the whoredom, and the strangled thing; and the blood;
Act 15:21  for Moses from former generations in every city hath those preaching him—in the synagogues every sabbath being read.’ (YLT)

Moses being taught in the synagogues every sabbath was sufficient for the believing Jews because they were all still attending the synagogues and keeping the law of Moses. At the time of the events of Acts 15, there was still no concept of Jews and Gentiles being ‘made one of twain’:

Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances [affirmed for Jewish Christians by the letter to the Gentiles of Acts 15]; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

It is only after this is revealed to Paul that James refers to the law as “the perfect law of liberty”, and the apostle Peter refers favorably to Paul’s epistles:

Jas 1:25  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Jas 2:12  So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

2Pe 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2Pe 3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

[Study Aired December 11, 2022]

Act 2:25  For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
Act 2:26  Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
Act 2:27  Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Act 2:28  Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
Act 2:29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Act 2:30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
Act 2:31  He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
Act 2:32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Act 2:33  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
Act 2:34  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Act 2:35  Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Act 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Act 2:44  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Act 2:45  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

We concluded our last study in the middle of Peter’s first sermon on the day of Pentecost, which was the day of the giving of the holy spirit and the day of the birth of the New Testament church. The gift of the holy spirit had been given and was displayed before all the people in Jerusalem by giving unlearned Galileans the ability to speak the wonderful works of God in all the languages of all the people who were present there that day. Peter had just reminded them of all the incredible signs and wonders which had accompanied the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, including the sun being darkened and the moon appearing to turn to blood. He told them that by “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God [they had] by wicked hands… crucified and [had]slain [their own Lord and Savior].”

Here are the last three verses of our last study:

Act 2:22  Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
Act 2:23  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Act 2:24  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

This first sermon to the Jews after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ took place on the day of Pentecost, and there were many “devout Jews” there from all over the Roman empire:

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

These devout Jews were there because it was required of them to appear at the temple in Jerusalem three times in the year:

Exo 23:14  Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:15  Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, [1] in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt [Passover and the days of  unleavened bread]: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16  And [2] the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field [Pentecost, 50 days after the waving of the wave sheaf during the days of unleavened bread]: and [3] the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field [The feast of Tabernacles, and The Last Great Day].
Exo 23:17  Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

Even though Christ Himself had “broken the sabbath” (Joh 5:18) and failed to show up on the first day of the feast of Tabernacles, as required by the law of Moses (Joh 7:8), the apostles of Christ were still keeping the “days, months, times and years” which the law of Moses required to be observed. Reforming any system requires time. This is “the time of reformation” in its early stages.

Heb 9:8  The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest,while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
Heb 9:9  Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;
Heb 9:10  Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

Knowing there were many Jews in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost who had never seen the “miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by [Christ]” let us note that Peter’s words concerning Christ and all He did are addressed to the “dwellers at Jerusalem [who had seen] the signs and wonders done by [Christ] among them”, and Peter says these words apply specifically to Christ:

Act 2:25  For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
Act 2:26  Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
Act 2:27  Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Act 2:28  Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

This is the Psalm Peter quoted:

Psa 16:8  I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Psa 16:9  Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
Psa 16:10  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Psa 16:11  Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Peter rightfully attributes this prophecy to the only person in history to whom it could apply. He attributes it to the only person whose body has never seen corruption, and who has been raised from the dead and seen by hundreds of people who simply could not deny what they had witnessed.

1Co 15:3  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1Co 15:4  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
1Co 15:5  And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
1Co 15:6  After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
1Co 15:7  After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
1Co 15:8  And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

Everyone in Jerusalem with any knowledge of current events had heard all of this and had heard that Christ’s apostles were claiming that He had been raised from the dead, and they all knew that there was no cadaver in the grave. All this was such common knowledge at that time that this is what the men on the road to Emmaus had to say to Christ on the day of the resurrection while “their eyes were holden” so they did not know Him:

Luk 24:13  And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. [Over seven miles]
Luk 24:14  And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
Luk 24:15  And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
Luk 24:16  But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
Luk 24:17  And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
Luk 24:18  And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
Luk 24:19  And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
Luk 24:20  And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
Luk 24:21  But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
Luk 24:22  Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
Luk 24:23  And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
Luk 24:24  And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.

Peter continues to rebuke these “men of Judea” who had called for Christ’s crucifixion, and he calls them to repentance:

Act 2:29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

Notice, Peter did not say, “David is in heaven, but his body and his sepulcher is with us unto this day.” What he said was “David… is dead and buried…” Later Peter even tells us, “David is not ascended into the heavens” (vs 34). How could Peter make such a statement if he believed in the fabled doctrine of an ‘immortal soul’? Peter’s whole point is that God did not leave Christ’s ‘soul’ in the grave. If David’s ‘immortal soul’ were in heaven, then Peter’s words “thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption would have no significance and would be a blatant lie, because David’s sepulcher was still with them. The whole point of “his sepulchre is with us unto this day” is that King David’s soul was indeed still in his sepulcher, and therefore this Psalm is “speaking of the resurrection of Christ, that HIS soul was not left in [the grave], neither His flesh did see corruption”:

Act 2:30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
Act 2:31  He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell [Greek, ‘hades’, the grave], neither his flesh did see corruption.
Act 2:32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Act 2:33  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
Act 2:34  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Act 2:35  Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

Peter’s whole point is that since King David is not in heaven, this prophecy must refer to Christ. If indeed Kind David’s fabled ‘immortal soul’ were in heaven, then the words, “Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool” could very well apply to King David. Peter emphasizes the fact that “David is not ascended in the heavens” and:

Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Act 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Is it not instructive that not one person said, “What do you mean, David is not in heaven? Of course his body is with us , but we all understand that David is in heaven.” The fact is no one could argue with Peter because “David’s… sepulchre [was with them] unto [that] day.”

Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

It is very instructive that on the first Pentecost where Israel had made themselves a golden calf to worship, three thousand people physically died under “the letter of the law” while on the first Pentecost in the time of reformation three thousand people spiritually began dying to their old man through being converted and being given spiritual life.

Exo 32:27  And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.
Exo 32:28  And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day [the first Pentecost] about three thousand men.

Truly “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth 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.

Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Act 2:44  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Act 2:45  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Going back to verse 39, rest assured that “all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord God shall call” had nothing to do with Gentiles who were “afar off”. In the mind of Peter or any of the other apostles or disciples, and in the minds of any of the devout Jews who came to keep the feast of Pentecost, that was understood. Going into the home of a Gentile or eating a meal with a Gentile was simply out of the question. To Peter and to all who were there on the day of Pentecost, those words were only meant to apply to ‘All Jews who were afar off.’ At this point Peter, and any of the other apostles, would ever have countenanced “going in unto Gentiles.”  As we see many months later, the church itself accused Peter of eating “with men uncircumcised” when the holy spirit had sent Him to the house of the Gentile Centurion, Cornelius:

Act 11:2  And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision [the church at Jerusalem] contended with him,
Act 11:3  Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.
Act 11:4  But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying,
Act 11:5  I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me:
Act 11:6  Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Act 11:7  And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.
Act 11:8  But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.
Act 11:9  But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
Act 11:10  And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven.
Act 11:11  And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me.
Act 11:12  And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man’s house:
Act 11:13  And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;
Act 11:14  Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
Act 11:15  And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
Act 11:16  Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Act 11:17  Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?
Act 11:18  When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

That God had granted the Gentiles repentance to life was a revolutionary concept to these devout Jewish Christians. This event in Joppa and Caesarea was long after the day of Pentecost.

Here on the day of Pentecost, when the holy spirit was first given to men, Peter himself was still living under the law of Moses as His response to the Lord shows when he was three times commanded concerning the unclean beasts and creeping things in the sheet, “Arise Peter, slay and eat”. Peter’s response was, “Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.”

This is long after the death and resurrection of the Lord. Peter refused the commandment to “slay and eat” unclean animals three times because to do so was forbidden in the law of Moses:

Deu 14:6  And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat.
Deu 14:7  Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you.
Deu 14:8  And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.
Deu 14:9  These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat:
Deu 14:10  And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you.
Deu 14:11  Of all clean birds ye shall eat.
Deu 14:12  But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,
Deu 14:13  And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind,
Deu 14:14  And every raven after his kind,
Deu 14:15  And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,
Deu 14:16  The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,
Deu 14:17  And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,
Deu 14:18  And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
Deu 14:19  And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten.

To a devout Jew such as Peter and all the apostles at this time, these unclean animals signified unclean Gentiles, as Peter made clear when he arrived at Cornelius’s house:

Act 10:17  Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate,
Act 10:18  And called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.
Act 10:19  While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.
Act 10:20  Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.
Act 10:21  Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius; and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come?
Act 10:22  And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.
Act 10:23  Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him.
Act 10:24  And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends.
Act 10:25  And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.
Act 10:26  But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.
Act 10:27  And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together.
Act 10:28  And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

These events take place long before the story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, and years before the Jerusalem council of Acts 15. Yet over 14 years later (Gal 2:1), after being told of the Lord that Peter should consider no man to be ‘common or unclean’, he and Barnabas both still feared what the Jews from Jerusalem would think of them if they saw them eating with Gentiles:

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 [Jerusalem], 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.
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?

On the day of Pentecost, when Peter said that salvation had come “to them that are afar off”, he was definitely not thinking that salvation had come to the Gentiles. He is speaking only of Jews who are “afar off” and would never dream at this point that the Lord would send him to eat with and speak to Gentiles. “Never [he said], has anything common or unclean entered my mouth!!”

Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort [all these “devout Jews out of every nation under heaven”], saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

The Lord has begun to ‘build His church,’ but every one of us, the apostles of Christ included, must learn to crawl before we can learn how to walk, and that is exactly what the early church was spiritually doing at the very beginning. We all must “fall seven times” before we learn how to walk.

Pro 24:16  For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

Here at its birth on this day of Pentecost, the ‘feast of firstfruits’, the apostles and all those who accepted the gospel they preached were as true and sincere and as humble as the ‘little child’ who Christ tells us we must all first be:

Mat 18:1  At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
Mat 18:2  And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
Mat 18:3  And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

This is not a call to be naive and gullible. The only characteristic of ‘this little child’ Christ admonishes us to emulate is the humility of a little child:

Mat 18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 18:5  And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

Christ did not call a sixteen-year-old to Him because even in His day that was not the appropriate symbolism for someone who was humble.

The Gentile converts at Antioch were also just such humble souls, and this is what Christ tells us concerning the weak and humble among us:

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

Peter had separated himself from the very Gentiles to whom the Lord has first sent him. When Paul rebuked him, he and Barnabas immediately repented of their hypocrisy and went up to Jerusalem with Paul to plead the case of the physically uncircumcised Gentile converts. As we saw last week even Paul and Barnabas “with the holy spirit” agreed that the Jews still had to keep the law of Moses at that time. It simply was not yet the Lord’s time for the Jews to see that God was making “of twain one new man” (Eph 2:15).

Getting back to the events of the first Pentecost of the New Testament dispensation:

Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

We all love and appreciate answered prayers. Nevertheless, the need for “many wonders and signs”, which were needed at this time to signify that this was a work of God, is an indication of the lack of spiritual maturity of the church at its birth. This is what Christ had to say about signs:

Mat 16:1  The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
Mat 16:2  He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
Mat 16:3  And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Mat 16:4  A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

Christ rebuked “the Pharisees with the Sadducees” for requiring a sign for themselves. In doing so, He pointed out that they had already been given “signs of the times” and had not discerned them. The faithful were given “wonders and signs” at the beginning of the New Testament dispensation to establish the church throughout the Roman Empire. Once the church was established, the time came for ‘the trial of [the] faith’ of the faithful (Jas 1:2-3), and all the healings and speaking with other languages ceased to be so common, as the apostle Paul tells us:

1Co 13:8  Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
1Co 13:9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
1Co 13:10  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
1Co 13:11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

‘Love’, defined as obedience to God (1Jo 5:2-3), is a gift from God which is not an endowment of the natural man whose natural, carnal mind is “enmity against God” (Rom 8:7). Paul is telling us that all other gifts, the gift of prophecy, the gift of languages, and the gift of knowledge, are all “childish things” when compared to the gift of love.

With this great Truth in mind, consider just how applicable those words are to the church in its infancy. They genuinely believed they have the love of God, and in an infantile manner they certainly do. Stephen’s ‘love’ of God led to his martyrdom. Yet not one of the earliest Christians, the apostles included, considered Gentiles to be any different than a common dog, as Christ Himself insinuated, before acting otherwise:

Mar 7:25  For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:
Mar 7:26  The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
Mar 7:27  But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.
Mar 7:28  And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.
Mar 7:29  And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
Mar 7:30  And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

The story of this Gentile woman is included in the scriptures to prepare the Lord’s disciples to later receive things which they could not at that time bear (Joh 16:12). It is this lack of maturity that is on display in the last verses of our study today:

Act 2:44  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Act 2:45  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

The Lord had commanded his disciples to “go into all the world” just as He had commanded Noah’s family to fill the earth:

Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. (NET)

Mar 16:15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Every “babe in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4) is slow to leave the nest, and Noah’s descendants preferred to build a tower “lest they [become] scattered upon the face of the earth (Gen 11:4), and the Lord’s disciples preferred to sell all they owned and  have everything in common and stay right there in Jerusalem.

Neither situation surprised the Lord, so He confused the languages at the tower, and He ‘scattered [His disciples] abroad” through persecution:

Act 11:19  Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.

Even after being “scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen”, Luke, the author of the book of Acts, takes note that the entire church still “preached the Word to none but unto the Jews only.”

The overarching point of this entire book is that the entire church of Christ began as spiritual infants who, until the end of this book, were still unable to bear the many things Christ was yet to reveal to them:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

The time will come when the holy spirit will show us how we are to be the light and the salt of this earth in this dispensation (Mat 5:13-14). However, that time and the revelation that a physical pedigree as Abrahams’s children and keeping of all the rituals surrounding the physical temple are things that are ‘passing away’ will not come to the early Jewish church until after all the events of this entire book have transpired, and the apostle Paul is in prison in Rome where the Lord will reveal to Him and Peter and all the apostles that He is in the process of making one body, one temple and one church of the Jews and the Gentiles, without the letter to the Gentiles of Acts 15 any longer dividing us:

Act 15:19  wherefore I [James the Lord’s physical brother] judge: not to trouble those who from the nations do turn back to God,
Act 15:20  but to write to them to abstain from the pollutions of the idols, and the whoredom, and the strangled thing; and the blood;
Act 15:21  for Moses from former generations in every city hath those preaching him—in the synagogues every sabbath being read.’ (YLT)

Moses being taught in the synagogues every sabbath was sufficient for the believing Jews because they were all still attending the synagogues and keeping the law of Moses. At the time of the events of Acts 15, there was still no concept of Jews and Gentiles being ‘made one of twain’:

Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances [affirmed for Jewish Christians by the letter to the Gentiles of Acts 15]; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

It is only after this is revealed to Paul that James refers to the law as “the perfect law of liberty”, and the apostle Peter refers favorably to Paul’s epistles:

Jas 1:25  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Jas 2:12  So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

2Pe 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2Pe 3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Exo 21:1-19  Laws Governing Hebrew Servants and Personal Injuries

[Study Aired August 15, 2022]

Exo 21:1  Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
Exo 21:2  If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
Exo 21:3  If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
Exo 21:4  If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.
Exo 21:5  And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
Exo 21:6  Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
Exo 21:7  And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.
Exo 21:8  If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.
Exo 21:9  And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. 
Exo 21:10  If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
Exo 21:11  And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.
Exo 21:12  He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. 
Exo 21:13  And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.
Exo 21:14  But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
Exo 21:15  And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
Exo 21:16  And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
Exo 21:17  And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
Exo 21:18  And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
Exo 21:19  If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

Apart from the Ten Commandments, the Lord also gave the people of Israel several laws regarding how they were to live their lives. This chapter deals with laws concerning how the people of Israel were to deal with their Hebrew servants and personal injuries. These laws were not different from the laws pertaining in other countries that do not know the Lord. That is why Paul said:

Rom 2:14  For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 
Rom 2:15  They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.

Obeying these carnal ordinances could not make the people of Israel holy. It was during this time of the reformation that Jesus brought about the law of Christ, which is the same as the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus which sets us free from these carnal ordinances which refer to the law of sin and death.

Heb 9:8  The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 
Heb 9:9  Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 
Heb 9:10  Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

Gal 6:2  Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 
Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 
Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

What this means is that these carnal laws have been raised to a higher spiritual level. Our study today will therefore look at the spiritual implication of these carnal ordinances.

Exo 21:1  Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
Exo 21:2  If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

The judgments here in verse 1 refer to these carnal laws set before the people of Israel. To understand verse 2 and the next few verses, we need to know what the word “Hebrew” means. The root letters of the word “Hebrew” means to cross over or pass through. In the Bible, it seems to have primarily referred to those who traversed or crossed over rivers. Abram was called “Abraham the Hebrew” in Genesis 14:13 which is the first time the word “Hebrew” is used in the Bible. The reference to Abraham as a Hebrew refers to the fact that he came from the other side of the river. The Hebrew servant here in verse 2 refers to us, the elect, who have crossed or are crossing the river of Babylon. As Paul indicated, we were bought by the Lord Jesus with His own blood and therefore are the Hebrew servants of Christ.

Gal 3:13 Christ bought us with His blood and made us free from the Law. In that way, the Law could not punish us. Christ did this by carrying the load and by being punished instead of us. It is written, “Anyone who hangs on a cross is hated and punished.” 
Gal 3:14 Because of the price Christ Jesus paid, the good things that came to Abraham might come to the people who are not Jews. And by putting our trust in Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit He has promised. (NLV)

Rom 1:1  Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

The six years of labor is the period of our walk with Christ where we use our strength (flesh) to serve the Lord. The seventh year is when we are set free in the liberty of the spirit to find rest in the Lord as He does the work. These six days of labor in the flesh therefore refer to our servitude under the devil. Unfortunately, during this period we think we are serving Christ and are therefore free. The seventh day is when we are set free from the evil one to serve the living God.

Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. 
Joh 8:35  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. 
Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Externally, our labor here on earth is signified by the six years. The seventh year is the next age where the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. It is during this period that we shall be free of this flesh as we take hold of the purchased possession to rest in the Lord.

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

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

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

Exo 21:3  If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. 

We know from the word of Christ that none of us become slaves of the Lord by ourselves. We are dragged by the Lord to come and serve Him.

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

However, when we were in Babylon, we thought we came to serve the Lord by our own choices. If we think we came to be the Lord’s servant by our own choice, then our supposed “liberty” is our own making as Christ does not come in to give us the rest that we seek. In that case, we are in bondage, but we think we are free. The wife here on a negative note refers to Babylon which is in bondage with her children. Being in bondage, we shall not abide in the house of the Lord forever.  This is what the Lord has to say about this:

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? 
Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. 
Joh 8:35  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.

Exo 21:4  If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. 

It is the Lord that gives us the church (wife), and through the union of Christ with the church, several sons and daughters are born who belong to Christ. The servant going out by himself here is another way of saying that we should work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Although the church nurtures us to grow in Christ since it is the pillar of truth, it is not because we belong to the church that we shall be part of the first resurrection. We must work out our salvation individually through the Lord’s enabling.

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.

Exo 21:5  And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: 

Although we are servants of the Lord, the Lord’s goodness and mercies toward us cause us to love Him such that we come to see our obedience as not the result of compulsion, but our willingness to submit to Him. His love toward us first is the basis of our love (obedience) toward Him.  That is when we come to serve Him freely by resting in Him. Our love for Christ also makes us love the church which is His wife and the children. We cannot love the Lord and hate His wife, the church.

Psa 145:7  They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. 
Psa 145:8  The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
Psa 145:9  The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

1Jn 5:1  Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Exo 21:6  Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever. 

When we come to obey (love) the Lord, we are given to know more of the mysteries of the kingdom of God as our ears are opened to hear clearly what the spirit of God is saying. This is symbolized by the master boring the ears of the servant with an aul. As stated in verse 6, our eyes being opened and our ears hearing is what makes us able to serve the Lord forever!! Our master bringing us to the judges means that we are before the cloud of witnesses (His elect) as we labor here in this tent of flesh.

Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. 
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Exo 21:7  And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.

A daughter or maidservant represents either the church of the firstborn (Jerusalem which is above) or Babylon (Jerusalem which is in bondage with her sons). This verse is another way of saying that it is an individual that is saved (in other words, set free) and not the church.

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Exo 21:8  If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.

A better rendition of verse 8 is as follows:

Exo 21:8  If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. (ESV)

As indicated, the maidservant represents either the church of the firstborn or Babylon depending on the context. In verse 8, the maidservant does not please the master, and so she represents Babylon which needs to be redeemed in the fullness of time. The master in this case has no right to sell the maidservant to strange nations or foreigners. The strange nations or foreigners here represent the people of the world who are symbolized by the nation of Egypt. It is instructive to note that even though when we were in Babylon, we did not please our master Jesus Christ, we were not sold to Egypt by the Lord. In other words, the Lord did not allow us to go back to Egypt even though He has broken faith with us as a result of our rebellious ways.

Jer 42:19  The LORD has said to you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Know for a certainty that I have warned you this day.

Exo 21:9  And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. 

God has selected us, the elect, to become the bride of His son Jesus. Thus, the Lord has granted us the rights of a daughter. That is what it means to deal after the manner of daughters in verse 9. Remembering that Israel or the church is signified by a woman or daughter, all that the Lord said concerning how He will deal with Israel reflects the rights of a daughter which we are. The following is an example:

Jer 31:3  the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. 
Jer 31:4  Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. 
Jer 31:5  Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit. 
Jer 31:6  For there shall be a day when watchmen will call in the hill country of Ephraim: ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.’
Jer 31:7  For thus says the LORD: “Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘O LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.’

Exo 21:10  If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. 

Our Lord has “two wives” – Jerusalem, which is above which is the mother of us all, and Jerusalem which is, which is in bondage with her sons. Jerusalem which is, came first before Jerusalem which is above as shown in the verses below:

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.

This means that the statement that if our Master takes another wife refers to us, the elect – the church of the firstborn. In taking us as another wife, the Lord has not neglected His responsibilities towards His “first wife” (Jerusalem which is – the physical churches of this world) in terms of providing her food, raiment and her duty of marriage as stated in verse 10. The Lord’s duty of care for His “first wife” is made clear in the following scriptures:

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. 

Rev 12:13  And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 
Rev 12:16  And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 
Rev 12:17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Exo 21:11  And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money. 

Since the Lord has not neglected His responsibilities towards His “first wife”, she cannot go out free without money. In other words, for the “first wife” to be free, she has to be redeemed at a cost. This cost is the blood of Jesus which has redeemed us all including those in Babylon and people of the world. What this means is that in the fullness of time, people in Babylon and the rest of the world shall also be saved through the sacrificial offering made by Jesus.

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.

Exo 21:12  He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. 
Exo 21:13  And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. 

According to this law, he that commits murder must be put to death. As we have indicated earlier, to hate a brother or sister means to murder. This means that we are all guilty of murder and deserve to die.  Since we are talking about the spiritual implication of this law, the punishment for committing murder is also spiritual. In other words, the death that we must face is also spiritual. That is, we must die to the old man or the flesh.

1Jn 3:14  We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

A simpler translation of verse 13 is as follows:

Exo 21:13  But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee.

Verse 13 is saying that if the death of the person smitten was by accident, then the culprit must flee into a place of refuge designated by the Lord. This place of refuge is Christ.

Psa 46:1  To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psa 46:2  Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 
Psa 46:3  though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

We know that nothing happens by accident and that everything is according to the counsel of His will. This implies that a prerequisite to taking refuge in the Lord is to come to realize that we are murderers just like our father the devil. That was what Jesus wanted to point out when He said the following to those who believed in Him:

Joh 8:44  You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 

Eph 1:11  In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

Exo 21:14  But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die. 

What we need to know is that whether we killed a man by accident or by intent, the Lord wants us to come to know that we are the greatest sinners just like Apostle Paul came to this realization. We have all killed our brothers and sisters in the name of the Lord thinking we are doing God a service just like Paul. Resisting the words of those the Lord has sent to us all amounts to killing them spiritually. This is all to bring us to that point of accepting that we are murderers just like our father the devil – that is, we are spiritually poor. It is when we come to this realization that Christ comes to us with the spirit of His mouth to put to death the old man or the flesh within us to make us His sons. Taking the guilty person from the Lord’s altar in verse 14 is to make us aware that the person is a worshiper of God. This means that it refers to us at a certain point of our walk with Christ.

1Ti 1:12  And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; 
1Ti 1:13  Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 
1Ti 1:14  And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 
1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1Ti 1:16  Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

Joh 16:1  These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. 
Joh 16:2  They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. 

2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Exo 21:15  And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death. 

We are all guilty of smiting our father and mother, and therefore we deserve to die. In other words, our old man or the flesh must die. Our father here is Christ, and our mother is the church of the firstborn. We hurt Christ by hurting our brothers and sisters in Christ. This means that hurting our mother is the same as hurting our father and vice versa.

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.

We are all guilty of killing the prophets the Lord sent and therefore are going through our death sentences through His judgment.

Luk 11:49  Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 
Luk 11:51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

Exo 21:16  And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

The word of the Lord summarizes our sins here on earth as lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life. It is the lust of the flesh and eyes which drives us to steal. As we have stated, Jesus raised the bar in terms of the law of Moses to that of spiritual laws called the law of Christ. According to this law, desiring to possess what belongs to others is equivalent to stealing, for which we are punished by a death sentence. We are all guilty before the Lord according to verse 16 and therefore deserve to die. Our death sentence has already been passed as we die daily.

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

Exo 21:17  And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

We have already stated that cursing our mother, which is the church of the firstborn or the elect, is the same as cursing the Lord who is our father. We have all cursed the church of the elect and therefore cursed our father, Lord Jesus. We are therefore guilty and therefore must be put to death. Again, putting to death pertains to the dying of the old man or the flesh or the beast within us.

Exo 21:18  And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
Exo 21:19  If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

We have all striven with the Lord at a certain period of our walk in Christ. Jacob’s experience of striving with the Lord is also our experience. Let’s look at what happened when Jacob strove with the Lord.

Gen 32:24  And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
Gen 32:25  And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. 
Gen 32:26  And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 
Gen 32:27  And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. 
Gen 32:28  And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. 
Gen 32:29  And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. 
Gen 32:30  And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

Just like Jacob, our Lord will prevail over us when we strive with Him as He touches the hollow of our thighs, and in the process, the hollow of our thighs becomes out of joint and therefore, we become incapacitated. It is only in our incapacitated state or the state of weakness that the Lord comes in to take care of us. This is what verse 19 is inferring. The staff that we walk with after being incapacitated is Christ. In verse 19, the loss of our time that we have to be compensated for by the one (Christ) who wounded us is the life we gain after we have lost it in this life.

Mat 16:24  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 
Mat 16:25  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Again, in verse 19, the one that caused the wound is expected by this law in verse 19, to cause us who are wounded to be completely healed. We know that it is our Lord Jesus that heals us after wounding us. It is in our wounded (weakened) state that Christ does His work best!!  We should therefore glory in our wounds for when we are weak, then we are strong in Christ!! Are you feeling weak, powerless, etc? Then you are the best candidate to receive the strength of the Lord!! He will surely come around to heal us spiritually and physically!!

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

May the Lord grant us the grace to be healed both spiritually and physically of all our wounds or diseases!!!! Amen!!

Exo 18:1-27  I, Thy Father-in-law Jethro am Come unto Thee, and thy Wife, and her Two Sons with Her

[Study Aired July 25, 2022]

Exo 18:1  When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt;
Exo 18:2  Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back,
Exo 18:3  And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land:
Exo 18:4  And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh:
Exo 18:5  And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God:
Exo 18:6  And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.
Exo 18:7  And Moses went out to meet his father in law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent.
Exo 18:8  And Moses told his father in law all that the LORD had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the LORD delivered them.
Exo 18:9  And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.
Exo 18:10  And Jethro said, Blessed be the LORD, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
Exo 18:11  Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.
Exo 18:12  And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father in law before God.
Exo 18:13  And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.
Exo 18:14  And when Moses’ father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?
Exo 18:15  And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to enquire of God:
Exo 18:16  When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.
Exo 18:17  And Moses’ father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good. 
Exo 18:18  Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. 
Exo 18:19  Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God: 
Exo 18:20  And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. 
Exo 18:21  Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: 
Exo 18:22  And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. 
Exo 18:23  If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace. 
Exo 18:24  So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said. 
Exo 18:25  And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 
Exo 18:26  And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. 
Exo 18:27  And Moses let his father in law depart; and he went his way into his own land.

Today’s study is about Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, who visited Moses in the wilderness, and the advice he gave Moses regarding how judgment must be administered to the children of Israel. We shall focus on the spiritual implication of Jethro’s visit and his advice to Moses, as it is the spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing.

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

If we only focus on the story and the physical lessons we can glean from it, then we are paying attention to the letter of the word which kills.

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.

Exo 18:1  When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt; 
Exo 18:2  Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, 

Jethro means ‘His excellency’. That means spiritually, Jethro stands for our Lord Jesus Christ who is an epitome of excellency. The Lord not only knows, but has planned, every detail of our lives, both good and evil as signified by Jethro, being aware of all that God had done for Moses and the people of Israel.

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. 
Psa 139:17  How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!

Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, taking care of Zipporah, Moses’ wife, is to let us know the Lord’s care for the church. As we have shown in previous studies, Moses also stands for Christ, therefore, his wife is the bride of Christ. Just as a husband who loves his wife cares for her with his own life, our Lord has laid down his life for the body of Christ.

Joh 10:11  I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

The Lord’s care for his bride as seen by Jethro’s care for Moses’ wife is illustrated by the psalm of David as follows:

Psa 23:1  A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psa 23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 
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. 
Psa 23:5  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 
Psa 23:6  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Exo 18:3  And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land: 
Exo 18:4  And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh: 

Just as Joseph’s two sons were reckoned to be the Lord’s, the two sons born to Moses are the Lord’s. In other words, they represent the elect.

Gen 48:5  And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.

This assertion of the two sons representing the elect is made clear based on the names of the sons – Gershom and Eliezer. According to Strong’s Dictionary, Gershom means a ‘refugee’ and Eliezer stands for ‘God of help’. As the Lord’s elect, we are aliens in a strange land here on earth. We are therefore admonished to walk by faith just like Abraham in our lives here on earth.

Heb 11:8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 
Heb 11:9  By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 
Heb 11:10  For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 

As His elect (Eliezer), the Lord will help us to be delivered from the sword of Pharaoh. As we have indicated in previous studies, Pharaoh represents the old man or the flesh or the beast within. The sword of Pharaoh constitutes the false doctrines and man’s wisdom from which the Lord is delivering us as His elect.

Exo 18:5  And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God: 
Exo 18:6  And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her. 
Exo 18:7  And Moses went out to meet his father in law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent.

Inwardly, Jethro coming to Moses is Christ coming to us with His judgment to destroy the old man within us or the flesh.

2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Outwardly, Jethro coming to Moses with Moses’ wife and two sons represents Christ coming with the cloud of witnesses who represents the elect when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

Rev 1:7  Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

Exo 18:8  And Moses told his father in law all that the LORD had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the LORD delivered them. 
Exo 18:9  And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. 
Exo 18:10  And Jethro said, Blessed be the LORD, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 
Exo 18:11  Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them. 

In verse 8, we are told that Moses recounted all the travail that had come upon them by the way. This travail is the fiery trials we must endure as we journey through this life. The good news is that the Lord will deliver us from all of them.

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Outwardly, when we meet the Lord face to face in the first resurrection, then we shall see everything plainly. When Moses met Jethro, the discussion centered around what the Lord had done to redeem Moses and the people of Israel. In other words, the discussion was based on the word of the Lord, which shows us what the Lord has been/is doing on our behalf. In a similar vein, when we meet the Lord face to face, that is when perfection comes, and we shall know fully the word of truth. This is what Paul said regarding meeting the Lord:

1Co 13:9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 
1Co 13:10  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 
1Co 13:11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Inwardly, when Christ (Jethro) comes to us with the brightness of His coming, we see and clearly hear the word of the Lord as the veil that blinds our minds is taken away.  Jethro’s assertion in verse 11 that he had come to see that the Lord is greater than all gods is to affirm the fact that the Lord’s coming to us results in the opening of our eyes and ears to see clearly who Christ is.

2Co 3:12  Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
2Co 3:13  And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
2Co 3:14  But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
2Co 3:15  But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
2Co 3:16  Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
2Co 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Exo 18:12  And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father in law before God.

Outwardly, this verse is about the marriage supper of the Lamb which is the consummation of the union between Christ and the church. In other words, this union is for our perfection.

Rev 19:6  And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Rev 19:9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

Inwardly, verse 12 is about the Lord opening our eyes to see and our ears to hear as we feast upon His words at His table.  David alluded to this when he said that the Lord shall prepare a table before him in the presence of his enemies. The enemies here refers to all that is within us that resist the kingdom of God from being established within us – the old man or the flesh.

Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. 

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. 
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Psa 23:5  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

The preparation of the Lord’s table in the presence of our enemies, is to make us aware that our old man (representing the enemies) is aware of how the Lord has given us the weapons (His words) to defeat him. Thus, the old man knows that his demise is a matter of time. This is exemplified in the story of Saul admitting that David will surely ascend the throne. Here David represents the elect, and Saul symbolizes our old man who is doomed to die.

1Sa 24:16  And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept. 
1Sa 24:17  And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil. 
1Sa 24:18  And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not. 
1Sa 24:19  For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore the LORD reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day.
1Sa 24:20  And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand. 
1Sa 24:21  Swear now therefore unto me by the LORD, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father’s house. 
1Sa 24:22  And David sware unto Saul. And Saul went home; but David and his men gat them up unto the hold. 

David swearing to Saul that He would not cut off his seed is to make us aware that although the old man is being immobilized daily by the Lord within us, it will still be with us. That is why we are admonished to watch and pray lest we give course for the old man to resurrect in our lives.

Mat 26:41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

The opening of our eyes to see and our ears to hear is the work of the Holy Spirit which is inferred in Psalm 23:5 when it states that our head shall be anointed with oil and our cup shall run over. Our head being anointed with oil signifies that the Holy spirit will come to us to lead us into all truth. The running over of the cup means that we have been given enough oil to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God in this life and to be part of what every joint supplies. What every joint supplies is the running over of our cup to the body of Christ.

Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Joh 16:14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 
Joh 16:15  All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 

Exo 18:13  And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. 

The marriage supper of the Lamb is the period where the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, which is figuratively supposed to last a thousand years. When the thousand years come to an end, a new age of the white throne judgment shall begin where judgment shall be given to the elect. This is signified in verse 13 by Moses who stands for the elect judging the people of Israel. This age of the white throne judgment is referred to here in Exodus 18:13 as the morrow.

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 

This judgment is what Paul was referring to when he told the Corinthian church that if they cannot judge simple matters of this world without resorting to the court system, how can they judge angels?

1Co 6:1  Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? 
1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? 
1Co 6:4  If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. 

Exo 18:14  And when Moses’ father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even? 
Exo 18:15  And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to enquire of God: 
Exo 18:16  When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.
Exo 18:17  And Moses’ father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good. 
Exo 18:18  Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. 

In the body of Christ, what every joint supplies must not be dependent on one person. Initially when the body is being built, almost all the work may depend on one person – an apostle. However, after a while, the body must grow such that every part functions properly. If the body is not able to grow, then it becomes a problem. For example, if the legs are not able to grow, then the body has to be carried which becomes a burden to those who carry it. Paul made sure that in every city that he preached, he appointed elders to oversee the work of the ministry so that he would not be unduly burdened. For example, in the churches, Antioch, for example, Paul brought up prophets and teachers to share the burden of the work.

Act 13:1  Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

Act 14:23  And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.

Tit 1:5  For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:

In the Babylonian system, which we were part of during a certain period of our walk with Christ, the pastor of a church is the main actor in the church administration – he does everything. They fail to see plural leadership as key to the Lord’s administration of the body of Christ. No wonder they burn out easily as they become unduly burdened. This is all because they have not been given eyes to see and ears to hear.

Exo 18:19  Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God: 
Exo 18:20  And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. 

These verses show us how we must conduct the Lord’s business in the body of Christ as elders. Moses here also stands for the elders of the churches. They are to teach the people how to walk and the work they are to do. This is primarily the role that the elders of churches must play in the body.

Act 6:4  But we (the elders) will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 

Tit 1:9  Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

Exo 18:21  Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:
Exo 18:22  And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.

These verses show us the qualifications of an elder. Paul and Peter further gave instructions to the churches regarding the qualifications of an elder as follows:

Tit 1:5  For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: 
Tit 1:6  If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. 
Tit 1:7  For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; 
Tit 1:8  But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;
Tit 1:9  Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

1Ti 3:1  This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. 
1Ti 3:2  A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; 
1Ti 3:3  Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; 
1Ti 3:4  One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; 
1Ti 3:5  (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) 
1Ti 3:6  Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
1Ti 3:7  Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
1Ti 3:8  Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;
1Ti 3:9  Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
1Ti 3:10  And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless.
1Ti 3:11  Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.
1Ti 3:12  Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.
1Ti 3:13  For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

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

Exo 18:23  If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.
Exo 18:24  So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said.
Exo 18:25  And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

When we obey the Lord’s command regarding the setting up of elders to oversee the administration of the church, and they do their work properly, then our fellowship shall become a place where every joint supplies to bring us to the full stature of Christ.

Eph 4:11  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 
Eph 4:12  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 
Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 
Eph 4:14  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 
Eph 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 
Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Our adherence to the words of the Lord regarding the administration of the church shall qualify us to receive the crown of glory when the Chief Shepherd shall appear at the end of this age.

1Pe 5:4  And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

Exo 18:26  And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. 

We are to do the work of the Lord at all seasons as stated in verse 26. We do not take a break in this work of the Lord. This is because the devil is roaming around like a lion looking for whom he can destroy. Any inclination towards relaxing in our commitment to the things of God will cost us dearly.

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. 
1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

1 Peter 5:10 is one of the scriptures that gives us hope in times that everything looks dim as we go through His judgment. The good news is that these fiery trials only last for a while and the end product of these trials is that we become perfect, established, strengthened and settled! Amen!!

Exo 18:27  And Moses let his father in law depart; and he went his way into his own land. 

Moses seeing off his father-in-law on his way into his own land is the same as our Lord Jesus traveling to a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. Thus, we are required to occupy until He comes.

Luk 19:12  He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 
Luk 19:13  And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. 
Luk 19:14  But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. 
Luk 19:15  And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. 

May the Lord show mercy to us so that when He comes, we shall be found to have gained enough by trading. That is to say that we become obedient to His words in every way!! We have this confidence that He who has begun a good work in us will see to its completion!! Amen!!!

[Study Aired June 23, 2022]

After Ahab was told this in 1Kings 20:42, “And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people“, he then “went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria” where that prophecy of “thy life shall go for his life” would be fulfilled.

This time of judgment against Jezebel and Ahab is at the heart of this section of Kings where we learn of Naboth the Jezreelite, a type of Christ, who loses his life at the hand of Jezebel and Ahab, showing us a very bright example of how we are all guilty of “all the righteous blood shed upon the earth” spoken of in Matthew 23:35 and Acts 4:27-28.

Mat 23:35  That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 

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.

The story of the servants in the vineyard who were beaten (Mat 21:33-40), reminds us of this murderous plot of Ahab and Jezebel against Naboth. The sure lesson for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear is that we are guilty of all including the death of the son of God whom we do not reverence at first:  “But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.“

Mat 21:33  Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:
Mat 21:34  And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. 
Mat 21:35  And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. 
Mat 21:36  Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. 
Mat 21:37  But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. 
Mat 21:38  But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. 
Mat 21:39  And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. 
Mat 21:40  When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?

It is only after the destruction of Ahab and Jezebel within us that the other husbandmen can be replaced by them “which shall render him the fruits in their seasons” (Mat 21:41, Psa 1:3, Mat 3:8, Mat 13:8). It is only when God’s judgments occur within our vineyard, meaning the destruction of Ahab and Jezebel who must be miserably destroyed, that men will learn righteousness which is what this parable in Matthew and the adjoining story of Naboth’s vineyard is all about (Isa 26:9).

Mat 21:41  They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, [Ahab and Jezebel within us with seven last plagues (Rev 15:8)] and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons [the body of Christ each joint supplying in love (Luk 12:42, Gal 6:9)].

Psa 1:3  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. 

Mat 3:8  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: 

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

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 [judgment is the precursor to bringing forth the fruit of Christ’s righteousness (Rom 2:4, Mat 3:8)].

1Ki 21:1  And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 
1Ki 21:2  And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. 
1Ki 21:3  And Naboth said to Ahab, The LORD forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. 

Notice that Naboth tells Ahab that his vineyard is “the inheritance of my fathers“, and so selling it to him would be akin to selling his birthright or his inheritance, which for God’s elect typifies being connected to the vine of the vineyard, Jesus Christ, who is our inheritance and our birthright, and we are his (Joh 15:5, Eph 1:18).

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

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 [Eph 2:10],
Eph 1:20  Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 
Eph 1:21  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 

All these verses below confirm what is given to those who are connected to the vine, Jesus Christ, in this life, and promised “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.”

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 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.  

Eph 5:5  For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 

Col 3:24   Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ [(Rom 14:8, Php 2:12-13), believe on the vine Jesus Christ who is our inheritance and we His (Joh 6:28-29)]. 

Heb 1:4  Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. 

Heb 9:15  And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 

Heb 11:8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went [(Rom 1:17, Gal 3:11) ‘how we are connected to the vine our inheritance’ (Gal 2:20)].

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 
1Pe 1:4  To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

If we look at the meaning of the names of these characters in the first verse, it becomes clear that God wanted us to know this vineyard was going to be blessed and productive and protected at His hand.

1Ki 21:1 and it came to pass after these things, that Naboth [productive] the Jezreelite [God will sow] had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel [God will sow], hard by the palace of Ahab [uncle] king of Samaria [watch tower]. (PNB-kjv)

Ahab wants to get Naboth to sell the vineyard and replace it with an herb or vegetable garden which is symbolic of an immature stage of growth when we eat only herbs (Heb 5:14, Rom 14:1-3) and cannot partake of Christ’s mature words which are symbolized by the vineyard (Joh 6:55). What this is telling us is that if we are not permitted to mature (1Co 3:6), we cannot be partakers of the inheritance in the vine, Jesus Christ  (Heb 6:3-8).

Heb 5:14 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. 

Rom 14:1 him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 
Rom 14:2 for one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. 
Rom 14:3 let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for god hath received him.

Joh 6:55 for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 

Heb 6:3 and this will we do, if god permit. 
Heb 6:4 for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the holy ghost, 
Heb 6:5 and have tasted the good word of god, and the powers of the world to come, 
Heb 6:6 if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the son of god afresh, and put him to an open shame. 
Heb 6:7 for the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from god: 
Heb 6:8 but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

Ahab goes on to explain to Naboth why he should sell this vineyard to him, “because it is near unto my house: and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money“, which is symbolic of someone trying to take our crown away from us in Christ (Rev 3:11), our inheritance. In the next verse we learn that Naboth was not going to have anything to do with this deal, even for “a better vineyard” or “the worth of it in money”, which is symbolic of how Christ rejected all that Satan offered him knowing it was incomparable to what was set before Him by the Father (Mat 4:9-10, Php 3:8, Rom 8:18-21). Also ‘another vineyard that is better’ is like someone offering you ‘another Jesus’ in a place that is nowhere near the temple of God (Mat 24:26, 2Co 11:3-4).

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

Mat 4:9  And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 
Mat 4:10  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

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, 

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.

Mat 24:26  Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. [places that are no where near the temple]

2Co 11:3  But I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by his treachery, your minds may be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 
2Co 11:4  For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus different from the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough! (NET)

1Ki 21:4  And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him: for he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread. 
1Ki 21:5  But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said unto him, Why is thy spirit so sad, that thou eatest no bread? 
1Ki 21:6  And he said unto her, Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it: and he answered, I will not give thee my vineyard. 

The story repeats itself at this point, but there is one very important additional element that makes this all come together, in terms of the spiritual message for God’s elect, and that something is Jezebel. Ahab, having been denied Naboth’s inheritance, which represents our inheritance in Christ, has him not eating bread which is mentioned twice. Two times mentioned is a typical witness to the fact that the real bread he is missing is a relationship with God and Christ that Naboth, in type and shadow, has and Ahab does not. There is no stay of bread or water in Babylon (Isa 3:1), no relationship with the Father and Son (Joh 17:3), and Ahab’s finding out that he cannot buy or persuade Naboth in any way to give up his crown land reminds us of Simon who thought he could buy God’s holy spirit in Acts 8:20-23. This situation has also thrown Ahab into a “heavy/sad”^H5620 and “displeased”^H2198 state.

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

Act 8:20  But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. 
Act 8:21  Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. 
Act 8:22  Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.
Act 8:23  For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. 

Enter Jezebel, who represents the churches of Babylon, with the ungodly solution to getting what her husband wants. She is ever the opportunist like Ahab, and now that she understands the unfulfilled desire of her husband, she won’t stop at any expense to illicitly take what is not his (Mat 23:15). Naboth, as a type of Christ and the elect, is falsely accused and all manner of evil is spoken against him, which leads to him getting stoned by “the people” (Mat 5:11-12).  The comparison with Christ’s life in this story gets more and more pronounced as we read on.

Mat 23:15  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves [Jezebel working on Ahab’s heart].

Mat 5:11  Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 
Mat 5:12  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you [Jezebel’s false accusations and persecutions of Ahab].

1Ki 21:7  And Jezebel his wife said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. 

Jezebel immediately appeals to Ahab’s pride with these words “Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel?“, like Satan in the garden with Adam and Eve with these words: “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil“. This statement contradicted God’s earlier given commandments which stated, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Jezebel’s actions are appealing to the flesh of Ahab as she tells him “arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite“.

Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 

Gen 3:4  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 

1Ki 21:8  So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and to the nobles that were in his city, dwelling with Naboth. 
1Ki 21:9  And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people:
1Ki 21:10  And set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king. And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die.

Jezebel represents Babylon and see how treacherous, subtle and diabolical this woman is from whom God has called his people (Rev 18:4, Mat 24:24). It’s one lie after another to meet the end of killing Naboth. She starts by writing “letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal” which Babylon does. They have Christ’s name but no stay of bread or water as they proclaim a false liberty (Isa 3:1, Isa 4:1, 2Pe 2:19).

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,

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women 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.  

2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 

Jezebel sends “the letters unto the elders and to the nobles that were in his city, dwelling with Naboth” telling us that when Satan is caused to attack the body of Christ, he wastes no time aligning himself with the rulers of this world that have the authority to make things happen (Luk 23:12). In other words, the devil is given the power to polarize the world against Christ and His Christ (Mat 10:22, Act 4:27,  Joh 19:11).

Luk 23:12  And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves. 

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

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 [Eph 1:11].

Joh 19:11  Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

What she writes in the letters is also indicative of the subtlety of Satan who appears as an angel of light saying, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people” (2Co 11:14-15).

2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Now the stage is set to bring in the false witnesses of “the sons of Belial”^H1100 against Naboth as they did with Christ declaring that he had blasphemed God (Joh 10:32-33). “And set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king. And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die” (Mat 26:59, 1Jn 4:17, Heb 13:13).

H1100
belı̂ya‛al
bel-e-yah’-al
From H1097 and H3276; without profit, worthlessness; by extension destruction, wickedness (often in connection with H376, H802, H1121, etc.): – Belial, evil, naughty, ungodly (men), wicked.  Total KJV occurrences: 27

Mat 26:59  Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; 

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. 

Heb 13:13  Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. 

Joh 10:32  Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 
Joh 10:33  The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

1Ki 21:11  And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, and as it was written in the letters which she had sent unto them.
1Ki 21:12  They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.
1Ki 21:13  And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.

This section of scripture confirms and witnesses to the fact that what God had purposed to happen to Naboth was something written for the elect’s sake to assure us (1Co 10:11) that God knows our enemies’ intentions before they are carried out (Amo 3:6-7). He strengthens and prepares our hearts for every trial that comes our way, promising that we will not be tried beyond the measure that we can endure as He will be 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.” (1Co 10:13).

Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? 
Amo 3:7  Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

In the midst of this promise (1Co 10:13) which tells us that we can escape by bearing the cross were given as we go outside the camp with Christ (Heb 13:13-14), we are exhorted with these words: “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1Co 10:12) so that we don’t lean to our own understanding in our hour of need but rather turn to the Lord for the deliverance that has been promised by standing still and trusting in the Lord to save us (Heb 13:13-14, Mat 10:19, Exo 14:13).

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 
1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 
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.

Heb 13:13  Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. 
Heb 13:14  For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. 

Mat 10:19  But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
Mat 10:20  For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. [Php 4:13]

Exo 14:13  And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

1Ki 21:14  Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth is stoned, and is dead. 
1Ki 21:15  And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned, and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money: for Naboth is not alive, but dead. 
1Ki 21:16  And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it. 

Jezebel has reason to rejoice now that Naboth is dead and a way has been made for her husband to “take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money: for Naboth is not alive, but dead.“

Little do we understand in Babylon how we abuse His vineyard, and this story of Ahab and Jezebel truly illustrates for us the carnal way we approach wanting what we want in our flesh when we first learn of Christ with a Babylonian mindset, and how we achieve this under the auspicious actions of thinking we are holy or wholly entitled, as Jezebel thought she was.

By God’s grace and in His perfect timing, we learn that this is the way our Father had predetermined our carnal hearts (Eph 2:3-5) to operate and that it would be through the death of Naboth, who typifies Christ, that God would “devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him” (2Sa 14:14).

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;)  

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

That new life which is not expelled from God, as Adam and Eve were from the garden, can only come about at the expense of the death of our carnal old man by way of the flaming sword that turns every way to guard the tree of life (Gen 3:24). It is of course Christ, the fit man, who can devise this means of creating saviors, represented by the scapegoat (Lev 16:21), that will one day save the world with Him (Oba 1:21). The bride of Christ is the means to that end so the rest of humanity can be saved and “His banished be not expelled from him”, and this is the reason why we, the body of Christ, must needs die daily as water spilt on the ground as our outward man perishes and our inward man is renewed day by day (2Co 4:16).

Gen 3:24  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. 

Lev 16:21  And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: 

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

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

It is telling that the Strong’s Hebrew number for “heavy” or “sad” (H5620 “Sar”), as we read about Ahab in several verses (1Ki 20:43, 1Ki 21:4, 1Ki 21:5), is translated to the Greek number G5015 “Tarasso” (see ABP+). We will see next week, in part two of this study, how judgment will come upon Ahab and Jezebel for their ungodly actions, representing how we are saved by our Father in heaven through the judgment He brings upon the church (Tit 2:12, 1Pe 4:17) to destroy our old man, represented by Ahab and Jezebel (Gal 5:10, 1Pe 3:13-17).

1Pe 3:13  And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? 
1Pe 3:14  But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled^G5015; 
1Pe 3:15  But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
1Pe 3:16  Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. 
1Pe 3:17  For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.

Gal 5:10  I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth^G5015 you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.