Proverbs 26 “To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” Part 6

(Pro 26:22-28)

[Study Aired March 19, 2026]

Pro 26:22  The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
Pro 26:23  Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross.
Pro 26:24  He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him;
Pro 26:25  When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart.
Pro 26:26  Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole congregation.
Pro 26:27  Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.
Pro 26:28  A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin.

With true Godly repentance that “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” (Mat 3:8), we become part of a cleansing process by God’s spirit that takes us from an academic, worldly knowledge of Christ, to being able to demonstrate the power of God because of the cleansing of our temple that now has liberty by way of God’s spirit working in our lives, giving us power to die daily and overcome (1Co 2:5-14, 2Co 3:17, Joh 8:31-32, Joh 8:36, Rom 6:14).

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. (1Jn 4:6-7, Heb 12:25, Heb 5:7, Heb 10:25)

[“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph 3:19)]

1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.(Joh 8:36)
1Co 2:6  Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect:G5046 yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1Co 2:8  Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

[Babylon is still crucifying Christ afresh with the substitutionary doctrine, sinning with impunity believing that Christ did everything on the cross and that there is no need for us to fill up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ (Col 1:24, Lev 16:10, Lev 14:6). There is a need, and there is a lifelong process that is seeing Christ increase as we decrease (Joh 3:30), sinning less and less by God’s grace (Heb 12:6) through faith (1Jn 5:4) if we are His workmanship in this age (Eph 2:8)]

In this last section of proverbs chapter 26 we will look at how knowing the love of Christ surpasses human knowledge, or human understanding. The Spirit guides us into all Truth (Joh 16:13), for the express purpose of exposing corruption in our hearts. These verses confirm that truth! (Rom 2:4, 1Jn 3:1-3, 1Jn 1:5-10).

Pro 26:22  The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

In this first proverb I’ll bring out a few biblical examples that show how harmful gossip, or rumours, can be. A talebearer does just that, and as we will see with the examples given, gossip can deeply wound people, and bring division to the body of Christ (Pro 6:16-19). The best way to avoid internalizing gossip, which both injures and corrupts as it goes down “into the innermost parts of the belly”, is to never let it start.

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

The Bible repeatedly illustrates the powerful and often destructive impact of words.

Miriam and Aaron, criticizing Moses over his Cushite wife in Numbers 12, allowed their discontent to spread, ultimately resulting in God striking Miriam with leprosy—a stark example of how spoken criticism can escalate.

Similarly, Doeg the Edomite’s report to King Saul in 1 Samuel 21–22 led to the massacre of 85 priests at Nob, showing how a single report can ignite deadly consequences when accepted without discernment.

In the New Testament, false accusations against Jesus in Matthew 26 were repeated until public opinion turned against Him, contributing to His crucifixion and demonstrating how slander shapes hearts and events.

The spies’ fearful report about Canaan in Numbers 13–14 discouraged the Israelites, prompting rebellion and 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, while Absalom’s subtle manipulation of the people in 2 Samuel 15 “stole the hearts of the men of Israel,” ultimately leading to a rebellion against his father, King David.

In each case, Scripture shows that words, whether whispered, repeated, or subtly sown, can penetrate deeply, influence hearts, and bring about devastating consequences.

Here are some scriptures to consider that explain how we can  “know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God”, overcoming this deadly spirit of a talebearer.

Overcoming gossip through the love of Christ:

Through Christ, our hearts can change from this (Mat 12:34), as we overcome and fulfill these following verses by God’s grace (Psa 141:3, Gal 5:22-23, Jas 1:19-20, Pro 17:9, Col 3:12).

Mat 12:34  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

Psa 141:3  Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.

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.

Jas 1:19  Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
Jas 1:20  For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Pro 17:9  He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

Col 3:12  Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

Pro 26:23  Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross.

Pro 26:23  Hiding hateful thoughts behind smooth talk is like coating a clay pot with a cheap glaze.[CEV]

The lesson for God’s elect is to examine ourselves, and judge ourselves so that we don’t become as the whitened sepulchre described by Christ in (Mat 23:26-28).

Mat 23:26  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter (2Co 13:5, 1Co 9:27), that the outside of them may be clean also.
Mat 23:27  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.(Eze 33:13)

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

The “potsherd covered with silver dross” (Jer 6:27-30) is the very hard to detect and remove, self righteous spirit that we all must overcome day to day, thought by thought (Php 3:9).

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Pro 3:5-12)

Jer 6:26  O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.
Jer 6:27  I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.
Jer 6:28  They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.
Jer 6:29  The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.
Jer 6:30  Reprobate silver shall men call them,[“a potsherd covered with silver dross”] because the LORD hath rejected them.

Pro 26:24  He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him;

To ‘dissemble with one’s lips’ is to pretend to be friendly or kind, while secretly harboring hatred. It’s the act of speaking falsely to hide true feelings. When we lay up deceit within ourselves we harbour hidden intentions of harm or dishonesty.

In short, this proverb warns that some people conceal their hatred with flattering words. This is why we are to try the spirits whether they are of the Lord or not (1Jn 4:1). It’s a sad commentary on human nature, but very real and very active in the world which we are not to love, but rather demonstrate our love toward our neighbour by doing the will of God (1Jn 2:15-17). If we are blessed to do the will of God he will lead us to victory over our inward struggles and enemies without as well (Psa 1:1-6)

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

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

Psa 1:1  Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Psa 1:2  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
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.
Psa 1:4  The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Psa 1:5  Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
Psa 1:6  For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

A clear example of this proverb is Judas Iscariot, who harbored deceit and hatred, even while ‘going along to get along’ for years with Christ and his disciples. We know Judas was a type of the man of perdition who was yet to be removed, and yet all the disciples forsook Christ, as we all do at first. To those with whom God is working, a pattern is revealed with Christ’s words to both Peter and Judas. Peter was called to be an overcomer who by God’s grace wept bitter tears after He betrayed Christ and then went on to receive the holy spirit on Pentecost. Judas, typifying the man of perdition was encouraged by Christ, “That thou doest, do quickly”, as opposed to Peter who was rebuked and told “Get thee behind me, Satan”.

Joh 13:27  And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

Mat 16:22  Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
Mat 16:23  But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
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.(Pro 3:5-12, Php 3:9)

Pro 26:25  When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart.

Christ in us as our hope of glory (Col 1:27) can see right through the fair speech of others, making it possible for us to try the spirits whether they are of the Lord or not (1Jn 4:1, 1Co 2:12-13).

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth (1Co 2:5), but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.(We try the spirits with the word of God)

This proverb warns against trusting someone simply because their words sound kind, flattering, or persuasive. “Speaking fair” refers to speech that seems agreeable or honest, but may actually conceal deceit. Appearances can be misleading, and words alone do not prove a person’s trustworthiness.

The phrase “seven abominations in his heart” symbolizes complete or extreme wickedness, with the number seven representing completeness (2Co 11:13-15). This means that while the person’s words may be pleasant, their inner thoughts, motives, and intentions can be thoroughly corrupt or evil (Act 20:29-32).

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.

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.
Act 20:32  And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. (His word is light 1Jn 1:7, His word is truth Joh 17:17)

Pro 26:26  Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole congregation.

This proverb teaches us that a person may try to hide hatred or evil intentions behind deceit, lies, or pleasant behavior, but eventually the truth will be exposed. Adam and Eve are the prototype for this kind of behaviour.

It’s in the churches of this world that we are hidden for a season amongst men, as Adam and Eve did amongst the trees that typify men (Gen 3:8, Mar 8:24).

Gen 3:8  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

Mar 8:24  And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.

If God is working with us in this age He will draw us out of Babylon and the myriad of lies that are within her, and we will be humbled in the congregation of God where we will go through a process of having the seals, trumpets and vials poured out upon us, cleansing us of all those lies (Rev 16:1).

Rev 16:1  And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

In this verse with the expression “your sin will find you out” (Num 32:23), Moses warns the tribes of Reuben and Gad that if they fail to keep their promise to help Israel conquer the land, they would be sinning against God, and their sin would find them out. The principle is that wrongdoing eventually brings consequences and exposure—God sees what is hidden, and the truth will come to light sooner or later.

Here are some biblical examples of sins being exposed:

Achan – In the story recorded in the Book of Joshua chapter 7, Achan secretly stole forbidden items from Jericho and hid them in his tent (Jos 7:21), but God revealed the sin and it was exposed before all Israel. The Babylonish garment represents the false doctrines of Babylon that are wrapped around the idol of our hearts until they are exposed and destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming into our lives (2Th 2:8).

Jos 7:21  When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.

One other example is King David who, after committing adultery with Bathsheba and arranging the death of her husband Uriah the Hittite, tried to conceal the sin. However, God sent Nathan the Prophet, who confronted him and revealed the wrongdoing, and let David know that the sword would not depart from his house. This curse pronounced on David typifies the blessing God bestows upon the elect in this age as we are judged by the sharp two edged sword that God’s word represents (2Sa 12:10, 1Pe 4:17, Heb 4:12).

2Sa 12:10  Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged 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.

Pro 26:27  Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.

This proverb teaches the principle that harmful schemes often backfire on the person who planned them. Someone who plots evil, deception, or injustice for others frequently ends up suffering the consequences of their own actions. It reflects a common biblical theme: God’s justice causes the wicked to be trapped by their own plans.

What comes to mind is that we all dig a pit in Babylon when were under the law, and Christ comes to us to show us our hypocrisy in keeping the law for the lawless (1Ti 1:9), only when it’s convenient for us (Luk 14:5). Our strength, our riches in Babylon are represented by this ass or ox that falls into a pit.

Luk 14:5  And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?

Christ is our sabbath, our spiritual rest, and He is showing us how lacking the law of Moses is. Christ is that stone “and he that rolleth a stone” (Mat 21:42) that we roll around for so long in our flesh while we are under tutors and governors, under the law (Gal 4:2), until one day Lord willing that stone comes back and crushes us, “it will return upon him” bringing us to see clearly the hypocrisy of all flesh (Rom 7:8-9) and how only Christ within us can truly give us the ability to keep the spirit of the law (Mat 21:44).

Mat 21:42  Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

Rom 7:8  But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
Rom 7:9  For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

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

Pro 26:28  A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin.

Here are three example that bring out how this proverb can be explained. The first being the false witnesses against Jesus as the example of a “lying tongue”. The Pharisees flattering Jesus to trap him, as an example of a “flattering mouth”, and finally Absalom flattering the people to steal the kingdom, which flattery led to ruin “worketh ruin”.

The first example of “a lying tongue” is seen in the false witnesses brought against Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. During His trial, the religious leaders sought testimony that would justify condemning Him, and many came forward with false accusations (Mat 26:59-60). These lies ultimately contributed to Christ being delivered to crucifixion. This account demonstrates how a lying tongue harms those it targets and reveals the hatred behind the words, fulfilling the warning of (Pro 26:28) that deceitful speech afflicts and injures others.

The second example shows how flattery can be used deceptively. The Pharisees approached Jesus with respectful-sounding praise, saying that He was true and taught the way of God in truth, but their words were only a pretense meant to trap Him with the question about paying tribute to Caesar (Mat 22:16-17). Their flattering speech was not sincere admiration but a calculated attempt to ensnare Him. This illustrates how a flattering mouth can conceal harmful intent and work toward ruin, exactly as the proverb warns.

The third example is found in the rebellion of Absalom recorded in the Second Book of Samuel. Absalom positioned himself at the gate of the city and spoke kindly and sympathetically to the people, suggesting that their grievances would be better heard if he were judge in the land, a type and shadow of wanting to make disciples after themselves (2Sa 15:3-4, Act 20:30). Through these flattering words he gradually “stole the hearts of the men of Israel,” leading to rebellion against David. In the end, the scheme brought devastation to the kingdom and ultimately to Absalom himself, showing how flattery leads to ruin “and a flattering mouth worketh ruin”.

These examples remind us that the admonitions in Proverbs 26 are not merely moral observations but spiritual lessons that reveal the condition of the human heart and the need for the life of Christ to mature within us.

Whether through gossip, deceitful speech, hidden hatred, or flattering words, the flesh continually manifests corruption that must be exposed and cleansed by the Spirit of God. As we are judged and purified by the living Word, we learn in a deeper way “to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.” (His word is light Joh 17:17, His word is truth Joh 17:17-19)

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

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Joh 17:18  As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
Joh 17:19  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

“The first man is of the earth, earthy:
the second man is the Lord from heaven” Part 2

(Pro 20:11-20)

[Study Aired October 16, 2025]

Pro 20:11  Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.
Pro 20:12  The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them.
Pro 20:13  Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
Pro 20:14  It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.
Pro 20:15  There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
Pro 20:16  Take his garment that is surety for a stranger: and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.
Pro 20:17  Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.
Pro 20:18  Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.
Pro 20:19  He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.
Pro 20:20  Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.

In verse eleven of this weeks study, we read, “Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.” The child represents the younger more physical understanding of the word of God, (Luk 8:11, Luk 8:15, Joh 3:3-7), and tells us something about our level of maturity and comprehension, which we pray the Lord will continue to increase as only He can (1Co 13:11-13, 2Pe 3:18, 1Co 3:6).

Luk 8:11  Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. [like a seed the word has to mature and grow]

Luk 8:15  But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it,[Rev 1:3, Joh 8:31-32] and bring forth fruit with patience.[Luk 21:19, Mat 5:37]

Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again [as a manchild], he cannot see the kingdom of God. [which kingdom is maturing within the body of Christ Luk 17:21, Rev 12:5, Rev 12:13]
Joh 3:4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? [this question reminds God’s elect of that time when we thought we could enter into the womb of another church [woman] and be born again, when in reality we must be born of water and spirit in Jerusalem above the mother of us all (Gal 4:26) mother]
Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; [God’s elect are born in  fleshly carnal Babylon] and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [God’s elect are dragged out of Babylon by God’s spirit working in our heavens before we know we are His] (1Co 15:46, Psa 107:2)
Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. [we must be redeemed from the hand of the enemy which is our carnal mind that is enmity against the spirit of God (Gal 5:17)]

In this week’s study we’ll look at how the Lord is maturing the manchild within us, even as we deal with very natural physical circumstances, that God works in the elects’ lives (Eph 2:10) so that we can become stablished, strengthened and settled (1Pe 5:10-11), by the God of all grace, who gives us the strength and faith to rule over the powers and principalities that reside in this fleshly realm, to witness to the world how all things, the natural and the spiritual, work together for the good for those who love God and who are called according to His purpose (Eph 6:12, Eph 1:20-21, Rom 8:28).

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Pro 20:11  Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.

There is a maturing process for every son of God that we must go through, including Christ who is our example of one who grew in grace and knowledge, in wisdom and stature, which growth He attributed to our Father who gave the increase, as we are blessed to also understand in our own selves, comes from God [Joh 5:30, Joh 15:5, 1Co 3:6].

Luk 2:52  And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

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.

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:

Christ as a child was known by his doings, that his works were pure and right, even if His physical parents could not understand his actions, they were still exactly what the Father wanted Christ to do and they were being done for our sakes (1Co 3:21), to teach us to follow His example of obedience to our heavenly Father (Joh 14:31, 1Jn 4:17).

Joh 14:31  But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

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.

Christ as a child spake as a child and understood as a child, and needed to grow “in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luk 2:52, Joh 3:30, 1Jn 4:17). He had his time of being under the schoolmaster in other words as a child, those conditions in his youth of being under his own tutors and governors to later be challenged by the experiences of evil that he would have to go through for his own growth and for our sakes (Mat 4:1, Rom 5:10, Gal 4:1-2, Heb 5:8-9).

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
Heb 5:9  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Pro 20:12  The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them.

God created our physical senses to teach us spiritual principles in this life (Rom 1:20). We know a man can hear and not hear, a man can see and not see (Joh 9:41, Mat 7:3-5, Mat 13:13). We also know someone can be physically alive and spiritually dead which is the same principle (Luk 9:60, Rev 11:2).

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

Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

God created all these physical and spiritual laws that govern our existence, he made the “hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them”. It is stated this way to remind us that life comes from not just hearing the word (Luk 8:15), but also by perceiving it which is what ‘seeing the word’ means (Rev 1:3), this is when we enter into life (Mat 19:17).

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

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

Mat 19:17  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

Pro 20:13  Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.

In the physical realm this is true, we shouldn’t over sleep, but spiritually this is talking about being spiritually awake to the battle that we are called unto, to fight a good fight of faith (1Ti 6:12), lest we come to spiritual poverty. Without God’s judgements upon us we would naturally go to sleep spiritually, and so Christ asks the rhetorical question “What, could ye not watch with me one hour? “ that one hour representing the day of the Lord, the day of our judgement that will have us trimming our lamps and receiving of God’s holy spirit. These events would not happen until the holy spirit was given to the church and so Christ was just telling his unknowing disciples that there was no way they were going to be able to watch and pray under those circumstances without God’s holy spirit within them (Joh 6:27, Mat 26:40).

Mat 26:40  And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?

If we are blessed in this age to be about our Father’s business and not neglect so great a salvation (Mat 6:33), we are promised that we will find our Lord (Jer 29:13) and be “satisfied with bread”.

Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Pro 20:14  It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.

Pro 20:14  The person who buys something from you always says, “It’s no good! It costs too much!” Then that person goes away and tells other people that he made a good deal. [ERV]

Without God’s spirit within us and the faith of Christ (Rom 8:9, Eph 2:8) we would live by our former dishonest conversation where our yes was not yes, and our no was not no (Mat 5:37). We also called “evil good, and good evil; [and] that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; [and] that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isa 5:20).

These diverse measures and weights is what is being talked about in this proverb when we were boastful and confident, “then he boasteth” in our flesh (Rom 3:27, Php 3:3).

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

Php 3:3  For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Pro 20:15  There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.

This proverb hearkens right back to Christ and the church spoken of in (Pro 3:15-19), where the “manifold wisdom of God” is made known through the church, “according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph 3:10, Rom 8:28). It’s Christ’s “lips of knowledge” that are a “precious jewel” on our lips (2Co 4:7-10).

Pro 3:15  She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
Pro 3:16  Length of days is in her right hand;[gift of eternal life (Eph 2:8)] and in her left hand riches and honour.
Pro 3:17  Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
Pro 3:18  She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her [Rev 1:3].
Pro 3:19  The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens [Php 2:12-13, Mat 28:18].

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Eph 3:11  According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2Co 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
2Co 4:9  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
2Co 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus [Rom 5:10, 1Co 10:16], that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Pro 20:16  Take his garment that is surety^H6148 for a stranger^H2114: and take a pledge^H2254 of him for a strange woman^H5237”.

Pro 20:16  Take a man’s clothing if he makes himself responsible for a strange man, and get an undertaking (mostly translated ‘pledge’; ‘guarantee payment’-see GNB) from him who gives his word for strange men. (BBE);

Christ took our debt upon himself (1Pe 2:24), and the “strange woman” or “stranger” in this proverb is the church, who is initially cut off from God and Christ, and likened unto a harlot who will be reconciled by the death of Christ. It is by his righteousness that we are saved, typified by His “garment” that we undeservedly received by God’s council and mercy (Psa 22:18, Rom 5:12, Rom 3:25).

1Pe 2:24  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Psa 22:18  They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

Rom 3:25  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness (his garment, guarantee of payment) for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

Taking “a pledge^H2254 of him for a strange woman^H5237” reminds us that it is the Father’s good pleasure to bruise Christ, as this is the only way that we can experience receiving the kingdom of God within, which is also God’s good pleasure to give to the body of Christ (Act 4:27, Luk 12:32). The surety^H6148 spoken of in this proverb represents the cost, or means by which the stranger will be reconciled, that being by the life of Christ. The pledge^H2254 also reminds us that Christ was bound to the altar for us, and by His life and death we can also be bound to an altar in this age that the world does not have any right to eat at. God knows we need to eat at that altar if we are going to be given to endure until the end and be saved in this age (Heb 13:10, Mat 24:13).

H2114 stranger zûr zoor
A primitive root; to turn aside (especially for lodging); hence to be a foreigner, strange, profane; specifically (active participle) to commit adultery: – (come from) another (man, place), fanner, go away, (e-) strange (-r, thing, woman).

H6148 surety ‛ârab aw-rab’
A primitive root; to braid, that is, intermix; technically to traffic (as if by barter); also to give or be security (as a kind of exchange): – engage, (inter-) meddle (with), mingle (self), mortgage, occupy, give pledges, be (-come, put in) surety, undertake.

H2254 pledge châbal khaw-bal’
A primitive root; to wind tightly (as a rope), that is, to bind; specifically by a pledge; figuratively to pervert, destroy; also to writhe in pain (especially of parturition): –    X at all, band, bring forth, (deal) corrupt (-ly) destroy, offend, lay to (take a) pledge, spoil, travail, X very, withhold.

H5237 strange woman nokrı̂y nok-ree’
From H5235 (second form); strange, in a variety of degrees and applications (foreign, non-relative, adulterous, different, wonderful): – alien, foreigner, outlandish, strange (-r, woman).

Pro 20:17  Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.

The bread of deceit is the smooth way of Babylon and not the strait and narrow way God’s children are called unto (Mat 7:13-14). It is the negative bread that is eaten in secret (Pro 9:17), and the negative experience of eating that which is sweet in the mouth “but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel^H2687”. The definition of this Strong’s number for ‘gravel’ gives us the sense that this false bread cuts and divides.  God’s truth on the other hand is sweet in the mouth and bitter in the belly where it accomplishes its work of humbling God’s elect in this age through the plagues that are poured out on us (Rev 10:9-10, Act 14:22, Rev 15:8).

H2687 gravel  châtsâts khaw-tsawts’
From H2686; properly something cutting; hence gravel (as grit); also (like H2671) an arrow: – arrow, gravel (stone).

H2686: A primitive root (compare H2673); properly to chop into, pierce or sever; hence to curtail, to distribute (into ranks); as denominative from H2671; to shoot an arrow: – archer, X bands, cut off in the midst.

Rev 10:9  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
Rev 10:10  And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

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

Pro 20:18  Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.

Pro 8:14  Counsel is mine [Eph 3:10], and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.

Pro 11:14  Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.[Eph 3:10]

Pro 12:15  The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.[Eph 3:10]

Pro 15:22  Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.[Eph 3:10]

Pro 19:20  Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.[Eph 3:10]

Pro 19:21  There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.[Eph 3:10]

Pro 20:18  Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.[Eph 3:10]

Pro 24:6  For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.[Eph 3:10]

Pro 20:19  He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.

A person who gossips as a talebearer and reveals secrets is identified as one who “flattereth with his lips”. That is the carnal first man Adam’s way of seeking advantage for himself at every turn (Pro 20:14), using flattery to smooth the deceitful path that our former conversation had us on in this world where we did not know how to cover the sins of others, but with loose lips were talebearers who revealed secrets.

We are fully aware that we are guilty of all and what is interesting to note is that one sin in scripture is often associated with another sin, in this case ‘gossip’ and ‘flattering’. Another example that is telling us the same thing this proverb is telling us, would be the thief who comes to steal and to kill and to destroy (Joh 10:10).

Joh 10:10  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Pro 20:20  Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.

This is speaking of our spiritual Father and Jerusalem above the mother of us all (Gal 4:26). If we don’t mortify the deeds of our flesh and become as those who are blessed to be positively cursed by hanging on a tree and living by the faith of Christ (Gal 2:20, Deu 21:23) then our spiritual “lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness” as a result of our troubling our own house and not kissing the son (Pro 11:29, Psa 2:12).

Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Deu 21:23  His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

Pro 11:29  He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.

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

“Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge” Part I

(Pro 12:1-7)

Pro 12:1 Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof [is] brutish.
Pro 12:2 A good [man] obtaineth favour of the LORD: but a man of wicked devices will he condemn.
Pro 12:3 A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
Pro 12:4 A virtuous woman [is] a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.
Pro 12:5 The thoughts of the righteous [are] right: [but] the counsels of the wicked [are] deceit.
Pro 12:6 The words of the wicked [are] to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.
Pro 12:7 The wicked are overthrown, and [are] not: but the house of the righteous shall stand.

The opening verse and last verse of this chapter of proverbs (Pro 12:1, Pro 12:28) work in conjunction with each other, and remind us how all the verses that we’ll study in proverbs or elsewhere in God’s word (2Ti 3:16-17), point to the blessing that will be given to those who are blessed to love instruction and love knowledge, in this life.

Pro 12:1 Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof [is] brutish.
Pro 12:28 In the way of righteousness [is] life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.

2Ti 3:16 All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Ti 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

The reward for loving instruction and loving knowledge is stated in the last verse this way, “In the way of righteousness [is] life; and [in] the pathway [thereof there is] no death”, which is another way of saying that those who are blessed in this life to read, hear and keep the sayings within all of scripture (Rev 1:3), will be sanctified and purified by living by every word that proceeds from God’s mouth (Joh 17:17), and will enter into life (Mat 4:4, Mat 19:17). Living by those words means those words are changing us and are no longer being cast behind us (Luk 6:46), as we’re now led of God’s spirit which His words are (Rom 8:14, Joh 6:63).

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

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Mat 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.[“In the way of righteousness [is] life”]

The words of eternal life will perfect holiness in time in each person who is blessed to abide in the truth and endure to the end (Mat 24:13), thoroughly furnishing us unto all good works in this life and the next by recognizing that we are the ones who first “hateth reproof”, and hold fast to “wicked devices” and live with a heart that is “deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9, Rom 7:24), the negative spiritual state that can only be overcome by the “life” of Christ within us (Rom 8:9, Col 1:27) who makes a way for us through God’s spirit to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts in this age in advance of all the world (Eph 1:11-12, Tit 2:12-13, 2Co 4:4, Rom 8:28-29).

Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ [2Co 1:9, Psa 23:4].

Tit 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; (“enter into life”)

2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

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

With God’s mercy being shown to us in this life (Rom 11:30-32, Rom 11:25-26) through judgement that includes fiery trials (1Pe 4:12), we can lie dead in the street of that great city of (Rev 11:8), and gain great hope that saves us (Rom 8:24-25 , Rom 5:5, Rom 5:10) as we come to be convinced through this dying daily process that we are more than conquerors through Christ, and that nothing can separate us from the love of God (2Co 4:7, 2Co 4:14-18, Rom 8:31, Rom 8:38).

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

Rom 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Rom 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (“enter into life”) [“And hope maketh not ashamed” Col 1:27]

2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels (Rom 8:9), that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

2Co 4:14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present [us] with you (now in earnest Eph 2:6).
2Co 4:15 For all things [are] for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
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;
2Co 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal; but the things which are not seen [are] eternal. [“For we are saved by hope”]

In short, “In the way of righteousness [is] life; and [in] the pathway [thereof there is] no death” is telling us that those who are blessed to endure unto the end of this life, through a lifetime of judgement, will be able to extend that same mercy and goodness of God to the rest of humanity (Rom 11:30-32, Rom 11:25-26), having been judged and made ready to do so (Rev 19:7-8, Rev 21:2).

That “righteousness” of God that is formed in this “life” is the greatest of all gifts that God bestows upon very few (Mat 22:14, 1Co 15:46, Joh 18:8-9, Joh 10:28-29) that are prepared by God alone who makes a way for His people to endure to the end of this life, changing our hearts so these words can be spoken of us, “Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge”, no longer being that brutish first man who “hateth reproof” (Rev 22:7, Rev 20:6).

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

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.

Pro 12:1 Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof [is] brutish.
Pro 12:2 A good [man] obtaineth favour of the LORD: but a man of wicked devices will he condemn.

If God blesses us to become as children, we will be entreatable like that little child of (Mat 18:3-6), loving the instruction of a loving Father as His spirit leads us into all truth (Rom 8:14, Joh 16:13). It is by God’s favour, His grace that chastens us (Heb 12:6), that we have the “wicked devices” of our life burnt out of us.

Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

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.

Pro 12:3 A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.

God must deal with that first root and branch within us by destroying it (Mal 4:1-2) if we are to become “the root of the righteous” that “shall not be moved”.

Mal 4:1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
Mal 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Here are some encouraging verses that explain why the root of the righteous will not be moved, and point us to the truth that in time all will be saved and made holy.

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 [the rest of the world to be grafted into the body in the second resurrection]. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee [boasting against the world is excluded by the law of faith, Christ faith that is given to us as a gift from God (Eph 2:8, Rom 3:27)].

Rom 15:12 And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust.[Christ will rule over all gentile flesh, starting with the Gentile nations within the body of Christ who are first judged in this life, so that one day they can outwardly rule over all the gentile nations of this world, which all flesh is to God. (1Pe 4:17, Col 1:27, Oba 1:21)]

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

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.

Pro 12:4 A virtuous woman [is] a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed [is] as rottenness in his bones.

We are Christ’s flesh and bones (Eph 5:30) and can only become that virtuous woman who is a crown to her husband by having that “rottenness in his bones”, in our bones, destroyed and removed through judgement.

Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

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

Rev 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.[our crown is the righteousness of Christ that is represented by the fine linen that is given to us in this age (Rev 19:8)]

Rev 4:10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things,(Rev 19:8) and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

The “virtuous woman” represents the church, the bride of Christ; and the crown being on the head of our husband, Christ, signifies that the Lord directs the church and leads us in paths of righteousness for his name sake (Psa 1:1-3, Psa 23:3). We cast our crowns before the throne of God which is symbolized in these verses (1Ch 29:15-16).

Psa 23:3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

1Ch 29:15 For we [are] strangers before thee, and sojourners, as [were] all our fathers: our days on the earth [are] as a shadow, and [there is] none abiding.
1Ch 29:16 O LORD our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine holy name [cometh] of thine hand, and [is] all thine own.(Rev 19:8)

Pro 12:5 The thoughts of the righteous [are] right: [but] the counsels of the wicked [are] deceit.
Pro 12:6 The words of the wicked [are] to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.
Pro 12:7 The wicked are overthrown, and [are] not: but the house of the righteous shall stand.

More and more contrast is given to us in these next three verses that remind us that, when we lean unto our own understanding, we are being positioned to find out that the counsels of the wicked within me will lead to deceit (Jer 17:9). If God blesses us to not lean unto our own understanding and trust the Lord with all our hearts, which can only happen through judgement (Pro 3:5-7, 1Pe 4:17), then our thoughts will be right before God, “The thoughts of the righteous [are] right”.

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

Satan constantly wants to sift us like wheat, as described with these words, “The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood” (Luk 22:31), and it takes the mouth of the upright, those who have God’s holy spirit within them, “the mouth of the upright”, to speak to us spiritual words in due season (Luk 12:42, Gal 6:9) so that those words “shall deliver them”(1Ti 4:16, 1Jn 4:6).

Luk 12:42 And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom [his] lord shall make ruler over his household, to give [them their] portion of meat in due season?

Gal 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

1Ti 4:16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. [Joh 8:31-32]

The wickedness or wretchedness within us can only be overthrown by the Lord building the house (Psa 127:1, Rom 7:24-25) is what we are being shown in this proverb, “The wicked are overthrown, and are not: but the house of the righteous shall stand”.

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

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

Christ has promised God’s elect that this first corrupt marred-in-the-hand-of-the-Potter temple or vessel that we are, is going to be torn down and built up in three days, speaking of his own body, the church which is his flesh and bones, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Col 1:24, Eph 5:29-30, Joh 2:19-21).

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:

Eph 5:29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

Joh 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Joh 2:20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
Joh 2:21 But he spake of the temple of his body. (Eph 5:30)

It is the Lord alone who will stand, “but the house of the righteous shall stand”, as He builds the church up and blesses us to come to a point where we have the whole suit of armour on us by God’s grace (Eph 6:13-14, 1Pe 4:17, Rom 14:10), and having done all, are now able to stand, through Christ (Php 2:12-13, Eph 6:13). The whole suit of armour tells us that there is a process that is required to put on the righteousness of Christ that is revealed to “Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge”

Eph 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Eph 6:14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

Having done all, Lord bless us to be found with your righteousness and not our own on that glorious day of your return (Luk 17:10, Php 3:9).

Luk 17:10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.[Php 2:12-13]

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

The Book of Hosea – Part 6, Hos 6:1-11

[Study Aired May 18, 2024]

In the previous chapter, Hosea 5, our Lord forecasted punishment upon the Bride of Christ. Typically, from experience and old Israel’s espousal to her Lord, it is a long and arduous process to route all the iniquities from our land.

We, the Gomer-like harlot that we were, if weak in the faith without implicit dedication to our husband, sometimes dally, tickling our ears with our old adulterous lovers’ (doctrines) and with dull, weak Leah-like unreciprocated eyes, like Jacob, despise her disunified spirit.

In the flesh, a husband’s marriage to an unconverted spouse has the same disunified spirit as a harlot has with her client. In the case of the converted husband and his unconverted wife’s refusal to be washed by the unifying word of God, she is deemed “unclean” effectively like Leah was to Jacob, to the point that he hated her even while she was ‘pleased to dwell with him.’ Conversely, the converted wife, married to an unconverted husband, has the spiritual tool of “chaste conversation” coupled with enthusiastically giving him her whole body as the Bride does for her Lord. Comparatively, it is much harder for a converted husband to win an unconverted wife since his only mechanism for winning her is spiritual, where her innate physical connectivity is mostly cursed.

However, and for the time being, like old Israel and Judah, we need to be vigilant not to return to our Gomer-like whoredoms only to again have our unrepentant hearts shredded (Hos 6:1). For the Bride of Christ, the cycle continues with repentance and His forgiveness on an expectant decreasing scale.

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

Israel and Judah are Unrepentant

Hos 6:1  Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 
Hos 6:2  After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

It is upon the witness of two days having gone through the figurative past six days of man’s life on earth that Christ first gives His Elect a double portion of spirit for their understanding of the seven seals of Revelation 5. Can you feel the enlightenment, the deep understanding that comes from this revelation? Christ is the seventh-day Sabbath that revives us. Being smitten as Christ was physically smitten and having our flesh torn and being ground to powder, His little flock goes ahead of their brothers and sisters who remain in Babylon, and Christ begins to rebuild the New Man of God, the budding Christs (plural) on their figurative seventh day, today. The entire affair of change from the old man to the new is a symbolic three days of Christ-like ministry for personal spiritual change.

The term “birthday” is only twice featured in scripture, with a third mention alluding to Job’s children, who were apparently celebrating a birthday of one of the siblings. On each occasion, someone lost their head or, in Job’s children’s case, were crushed by the symbolised stone riches of Job’s wealth collapsing upon them.

Gen 40:20  And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.

Mat 14:6  But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod.

Mat 16:21  From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

The number three symbolises the spiritual progression for the completion of judgment, and we torturously endure many revelations of denying Christ all the way to the First Resurrection before our perfection.

Mat 26:34  Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 

2Co 11:25  Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;

A most damning condition for the incipient Christian is reflected in the meaning of the name Capernaum, a village in Palestine. She represents our former Babylonian selves in the past, resting luxuriously in imagined peace believing we are saved without needing to be chastised.

Mat 11:23  And thou, Capernaum [G2584 = village of comfort. From G5151 Definition: 1. thrice From G5140 – three], which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

In fact, the Lord was so critical of Capernaum’s arrogant luxuriating in comfort that, most shockingly, she is depicted worse than Sodom.

Mat 11:21  Woe unto thee, Chorazin! [Chorazin = a furnace of smoke 1. a town in Galilee] woe unto thee, Bethsaida! [Bethsaida = house of fish 1. a small fishing village on the west shore of Lake Gennesaret, home of Andrew, Peter, Philip and John. Dung, mire]  for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, [1. an ancient and wealthy city of Phoenicia, on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, less than 20 miles (30 km) north of Tyre. Known for worshipping Ashtoreth] they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

Luk 12:48  But he that knew not [Sodom, Tyre & Sidon], and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given [Babylonian Christianity and supremely the Elect of God], of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. 

Regarding Paul’s thorn in the flesh that remains in each of the Lord’s Elect before being perfected on the third day IN the developing New Heavenly Jerusalem, where he and we spiritually perish, he says,

2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.
Luk 13:33  Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.

Hos 6:3  Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Mal 4:1  For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
Mal 4:2  But unto you [The Bride who…] that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Christ is the rising sun, the morning star who has healing in His wings, pictorially seen as shafts of light imaged as a red anvil-shaped storm cloud, an eagle’s wing lanced with bright shafts of sunlight. He is the sailor’s warning for the deluge of life-giving rain on the Saints today and the latter fiery rain at the end of the One-Thousand Years culminating in the Lake of Fire upon every conception of human life since the creation.

Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you [Old Israel physically and now, the Elect of God] on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

Rev 12:14  And to the woman [Old and New] 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.

Calves grown into young yet mature beasts are stall-fed grain (not genetically modified grain and hormone enhanced) and specialised fodder, which enhances the meat’s flavour, particularly when seasoned with salt (Col 4:6). Being raised in a stall restricts muscle movement and makes the meat more tender on the plate. That imagery represents our Lord’s tender mercies upon His young Wife. As Christ is, so is she.

Isa 53:1  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? [His Bride, of course!]
Isa 53:2  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

Php 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 
Php 2:6  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

Hos 6:4  O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

To the non-spiritual eye, our Lord sounds as if he is lamenting Ephraim and Judah’s wretched plight of harlotry as something beyond his control. She is depicted as a fatted calf in its youth, even as his very own Aholibah, glorying in her seductive beauty only to dry up in the midday heat of chastisement as just another old harlot with bruised teats.

Eze 23:1  The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
Eze 23:2  Son of man, there were two women [representing Ephraim and Judah], the daughters of one mother [… one church with one doctrine made void by fornication]:
Eze 23:3  And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. 
Eze 23:4  And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria [representing Ephriam in the north of Israel] is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah [in the south].
Eze 23:5  And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours.

Eze 23:11  And when her sister Aholibah [The Priests of God represented as Jerusalem portraying the future Bride of Christ] saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. 
Eze 23:32  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou [the younger, Aholibah] shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much [humiliation].

Eze 23:43  Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them? [… when you’re just an old dried-up harlot having dissipated the glory of your youth upon all the outwardly superb young men?]
Eze 23:44  Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.

To the stubborn and stony heart, those scriptures humiliatingly stop the mouths of the mighty lions we once thought we were in the glorious beauty of our Aholibahish youth.

Hos 6:5  Therefore have I hewed [divided into two parts, Judah in the south and Ephriam representing the rest of Israel in the north ~ Aholah and Aholibah; Old Israel and the New Israel of God] them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. 

Those with spiritual eyes easily see in those scriptures the multiple representations of the two prime women (fatted spiritually – negatively and positively) in scripture. Hosea, Jehu, and all the prophets preceding and succeeding her amply warn of her luxuriating in her beauty and disregarding her Lord’s admonitions to be colloquially seen as ‘mutton dressed as lamb.’ The Lord’s chosen to hopefully become the very Elect are the King’s (meaning, Christ’s) daughter who has previously been known to dress and refurbish herself to optimistically seduce her ‘bedfellows.’

2Ki 9:30  And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. 
2Ki 9:31  And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?
2Ki 9:32  And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. 
2Ki 9:33  And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot. 
2Ki 9:34  And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king’s daughter.

Hos 6:6  For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

There is no greater “mercy” upon any man than what Christ is doing to his Elect, His Wife! Since ‘all things are hers’ (1Co 3:22-23), she, with wide eyes now that she spiritually sees, starkly understands her miserable condition all the way from Egypt to the cross. Her endless works of sacrifice and by the sweat of her strength, even for some into the twenty-second century, she is alarmed yet joyfully sees her former self.

Isa 1:11  To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
Isa 1:12  When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
Isa 1:13  Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 
Isa 1:14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 
Isa 1:15  And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Isa 1:16  Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 
Isa 1:17  Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 
Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 

That “mercy” the Lord desires is in the ridiculously simple act from our heart to acknowledge our sins and rely on Christ’s strength to rebuild the spiritual Temple within. When compared to the Old Covenant Laws, how gloriously merciful is the simplicity in Christ’s methodology in relying totally on His strength to overcome the man of sin. Looking back to Sodom, Egypt, Babylon and Old Jerusalem being one and the same and recalling an exhilarating sensuality or material item long gone is not advancing the spiritual Adam but covertly displays one’s underlying heart not fully devoting our ‘land’ to our Husband (Account of Ananias and Sapphira – Act 5:1-11).

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband [not a husband of the Old Covenant and personal sacrificial works], that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Hos 6:7  But they like men [the flesh as opposed to the spirit] have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

Our “covenant” is the sacred marriage agreement we have with Christ, our spouse. Our natural feminine tardy desire to stir up the gift of God, the holy spirit, can result in insidious hypocrisy of accusing our spouse of the very thing we do spiritually to Christ. Thankfully, Christ’s desire for mercy over judgment emphatically keeps Him from being hypocritical (as if!) of His law. We know that it is impossible for God to lie (Heb 6:18), but not so many husbands in the flesh become bitter against their wives, remembering her in the glory of her youth, full of righteous sensuality, vigour and enchantment.

2Ti 1:6  For this reason, I am reminding you to fan into flames the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands (ISV).

The fast-disappearing orthodox act in the apostolic era of the laying on of hands was a symbol of being imbued with the holy spirit. A person of the time, and likewise today, having his eyes and ears open for the first time, is being highly spiritually aroused that we all first equate with the natural in sensual incitement. As we naturally age, those heady days of glorying in our youth often become a dull glow that the directly correlating spiritual likewise needs to be fanned alive daily.

Job, speaking concerning Leviathan, is the forthright antipathy of Christ in every respect of Job 41:21! With the experience of Shulamite poetic arousing drama, it is easy to see the righteous sensuality depicting its spiritual counterpart using only one verse from Job:

Job 41:21  His breath [Leviathan’s/Christ’s] can ignite coal; and flames proceed from his mouth.

Son 1:2  Let him kiss me over and over again! Your love is better than wine (ISV).

Only a harlot would suffer with righteous disdain for her hire’s dissolute repetitive kissing of lies, but not the Shulamite, the Bride of Christ she represents.

The most lamentable form of dealing treacherously against our husband is graphically experienced in the flesh of Leah-like disunity of spirit with Jacob. Jacob was unaware that Leah’s marriage to him was the tradition that the elder daughter must be first married before her younger sister Rachel, whom he loved. Jacob effectively ‘hated’ Leah for her God-given separation of like-mind, just as the Great Whore today unwittingly hates the Lord’s Bride. As such, Jacob unconsciously dealt treacherously with Leah. Try as she might to win Jacob’s affection with mandrakes sensualities and subsequently the majority of tribal Israel, disunion of spirit will never trump the works of the flesh.

Spiritually, our treacherous transgression of the covenant in Hosea 6:6-7 is blaming Old Israel, alive and well today, for the world’s plight of Zionism. In our physical marriages, it is represented as a converted husband blaming his unconverted wife (symbolically Old Israel) for not understanding nor wanting to be washed by Christ’s commandments. It is first experienced most ‘bitterly’ by a husband and his wife’s innate indolent boudoir intimacies consequent to Eve’s curse from Eden. Since a husband is to be head of the wife and understand spiritually Christ’s word, there is barely a husband in the flesh who understands her curse and is thus more profoundly likewise cursed and condemned for (unconsciously) not understanding that curse. Mercy is to be expressed by a believer for the babe in Christ or non-believer, and if that believer rages his Deuteronomy 24:1 displeasure upon his spouse for their unbelief, the following verse is likely to apply:

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

Hos 6:8  Gilead [Gilead = rocky region] is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.

A husband dealing treacherously with the innate and inevitability of a physically dis-inflamed wife unwittingly condemns himself equally innately with a “rocky” (i.e. stony) heart that pollutes the New Temple he is supposed to represent with the blood of his iniquity.

Hab 2:12  Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity! 
Hab 2:13  Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?

Such an obtuse husband labors with his two-fold child of hell-like self-righteous inflamement vainly attempting to change his wife when he should rather have mercy upon her God-given tardiness.

Eze 3:18  When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not [meciful…] warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

The hypocritical husband who is self-righteous and gives no mercy earnestly seeks mercy himself.

Probably no more profound measure of mercy is there than Christ for His Bride’s sins even before she has learned to swiftly acknowledge them herself (Jer 3:13, Rom 7:24-25).

Hos 6:9  And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness. 

There is no greater robber than Satan, who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. So, too, we were such while in Babylon, heaping to ourselves co-conspirators to justify our lies. Accordingly, they murder Christ and His word afresh and relatively innocent blood is on their hands.

2Ti 4:3  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 
2Ti 4:4  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Hos 6:10  I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

It is bad enough that Ephraim, representing the body of Israel, is full of harlotry. However, the greater blame lies at the feet of her Priests in Judah, you and I, who hold the oracles of God with Oholibah’s intent. A little bit of wink and nudge harlotry, colloquially expressed as ‘boys will be boys’, had already leavened the entire Body.

Gal 5:9  A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. 

1Co 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

1Co 5:5 [Reverse order] To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 

1Co 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Hos 6:11  Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

The little harvest of the first seeded fruits is with Judah, representing the little flock of the Lord’s faithful Elect whose harvest is in progress this very day since the cross – it is only she who can begin to understand that statement.

Luk 18:7  And shall not God avenge his own Elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 
Luk 18:8  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

The Priests of God, His Elect who are predestined before the creation to be His Priests, receive the most blessed inheritance of Christ, their Husband. In being given that office, they are automatically given mercy, initially seen as torturously being ground to powder and utterly consumed by fire. Upon them joyfully enduring their chastisement, they “returned [their] captivity” in coming out of Babylon and are named by their Husband as “my people.”

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, 
1Pe 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 

Amen! 

The Book of Joshua – Part 10, Joshua 9:1-27

“Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: ” – Exo 34:12

[Study Aired April 29, 2023]

The Body of Christ is highly conversant with the Lord’s stunning statement that “all things are yours” (1Co 3:22, 23). As such, until the end of the rule with the rod of iron and the death of all flesh, the Bible is written purely for Christ’s Christs!

The saga continues with Israel crossing the Jordan as a young nation in the bloom of her youth, learning her Lord’s commandments.

The violent death of Achan and his seemingly innocent family made Israel sit up straight and take the Lord seriously ~ well, that is what they believed without knowing the future power of the holy spirit. The Lord is still in the process of laying the foundation of His Temple for His distant Elect, and this study of Joshua continues with Israel’s milk and honey chastisements and blessings that will never depart while they are given to depend upon their flesh as a savior.

The Body of Christ is most blessed to understand that everything, both good and evil, negatively and positively, in scripture is a symbolic image of us that genuinely makes us sit up and take notice! Now, Israel, who is us, is about to entertain some rag-tag Gibeonite strangers.

Even with the holy spirit being that still small voice behind us, we downplay the warning trumpet of war in our heavens and graciously engage a little Gibeonite sin ~ it’s our nature to be kind to strangers and not judge with the fleshly facts at hand, and particularly by our own strength. Yet, and by the Lord’s hand for our torturous learning, we capitulate to His warnings.

Deu 7:1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
Deu 7:2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
Deu 7:3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. 
Deu 7:4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

The Gibeonite Deception

Jos 9:1 And it happened, when all the kings who were on this side Jordan, in the hills and in the valleys, and in all the coast of the great sea over against Lebanon heard, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite,
Jos 9:2 they all, with one mind, gathered themselves to fight with Joshua and with Israel. 
Jos 9:3 And when those who lived in Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, 
Jos 9:4 they worked slyly. For they came and acted as if they were ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their asses, and old and torn and bound up wineskins,
Jos 9:5 and old and patched sandals on their feet, and old clothes on them. And all the bread they had taken was dry and moldy. 
Jos 9:6 And they went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, We have come from a far country. Now therefore, make a treaty with us. 
Jos 9:7 And the men of Israel said to the Hivites, Perhaps you are living among us, and how shall we make a treaty with you? 
Jos 9:8 And they said to Joshua, We are your servants. And Joshua said to them, Who are you, and from where do you come?
Jos 9:9 And they said to him, Your servants have come from a very far country, because of the name of Jehovah your God. For we have heard of His fame and all that He did in Egypt, 
Jos 9:10 and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth.
Jos 9:11 And our elders and all those who live in our country spoke to us saying, Take provisions with you for the journey, and go to meet them. Say to them, We are your servants. And now make a treaty with us. 
Jos 9:12 We took this bread hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came out to go to you. But now, see, it is dry, and it is moldy. 
Jos 9:13 And these wineskins which we filled were new. And, see, they are torn. And these clothes and shoes of ours have become old because of the very long journey.
Jos 9:14 And they received the men because of their provisions, and did not ask at the mouth of Jehovah.
Jos 9:15 And Joshua made peace with them, and made a treaty with them, to let them live. And the rulers of the congregation swore to them. 
Jos 9:16 And it happened at the end of three days after they had made a treaty with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they lived among them.
Jos 9:17 And the sons of Israel journeyed and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim.
Jos 9:18 And the sons of Israel did not strike them, because the rulers of the congregation had sworn to them by Jehovah, the God of Israel. And all the congregation murmured against the rulers. 
Jos 9:19 But all the rulers said to the congregation, We have sworn to them by Jehovah, the God of Israel. Now, therefore, we may not touch them. 
Jos 9:20 This we will do to them. We will even let them live, lest wrath be on us because of the oath which we swore to them. 
Jos 9:21 And the rulers said to them, Let them live, but let them be woodcutters and drawers of water to all the congregation, as the rulers had promised them. 
Jos 9:22 And Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, Why have you fooled us saying, We are very far from you, when you dwell among us? 
Jos 9:23 And now you are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being slaves and woodcutters and drawers of water for the house of my God. 
Jos 9:24 And they answered Joshua and said, Because it was certainly told your servants how Jehovah your God commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all those who lived in the land from before you; therefore, we were very much afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing. 
Jos 9:25 And now, behold, we are in your hand. As it seems good and right to you to do to us, do it. 
Jos 9:26 And so he did to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the sons of Israel, so that they did not kill them. 
Jos 9:27 And Joshua made them that day woodcutters and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of Jehovah, even to this day, in the place which He should choose.

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Jos 9:1 And it happened, when all the kings who were on this side Jordan, in the hills and in the valleys, and in all the coast of the great sea over against Lebanon heard, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite,
Jos 9:2 they all, with one mind, gathered themselves to fight with Joshua and with Israel.

In Deuteronomy 7:1, we read that there were “seven nations greater and mightier than thou” – the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now we have an eighth, the Gibeonites. All eight of these nations within are of one mind, gathered to fight Christ’s Christs and cause them to doubt that the Lord will fight our wars for us when we ask. The hills and valleys within us hide our spiritual filth and all the way to the “coasts of the great sea” of humanity from which we are being told to leave.

With the number seven meaning completion and the whole of a thing, especially judgment, these seven nations are our spiritual enemies, representing the eight and many legions of evil spirits.

Who are these additional Gibeonite enemies making an eighth?

Gibeon H1391

– Original: גּבעון
– Transliteration: Gib`own
– Phonetic: ghib-ohn’
– Definition: Gibeon = hill city
a Levitical city of Benjamin, modern ‘el-Jib’, which lies 5 miles or 8 km from Jerusalem 
– Origin: from the same as H1387

H1387

– Original: גּבע
– Transliteration: Geba`
– Phonetic: gheh’-bah
– Definition: Gaba or Geba or Gibeah = hill
a city in Benjamin, modern ‘Jeba’, which stands on the top of a steep terraced hill, six miles or ten kilometres north east of Jerusalem and three miles or five kilometres from Gibeah, on the edge of the Wadi Suweinit looking northward to the opposite village of ancient Michmash, modern ‘Mukhmas’

– Origin: from the same as H1375
– Original: גּביע
– Transliteration: G@biya`
– Phonetic: gheb-ee’-ah
– Definition: cup, bowl

As it turns out, the Gibeonites are close relatives of Israel through Benjamin, who were unaware of the commandments of Moses since the Gibeonites didn’t come out of Egypt with greater Israel.

Regardless of the Gibeonites’ (‘city of Benjamin’) close association with Israel, we don’t acquiesce to our close relatives when they live contrary to the Lord’s word. 

Mat 10:36 And a man’s foes shall be those of his own household. 
Mat 10:37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

Giving our Gibeonite kin a nod and a wink for their seeming innocence is the same as welcoming Babylonian Christianity doctrines.

Most interestingly, with the Gibeonites being an apparent eighth enemy in the land, the Lord started with them as the head, the last great day of judgment (eighth day), and worked backwards to kill the remaining seven, the figurative body of Joseph’s brothers as one action in the Lake of Fire.

The relatively small cities of Jericho and Ai were teaser victories of the eight that arrogantly emboldened Israel. It doesn’t matter if there were many enemy sub-cities of the eight since the meaning of the number seven encompasses them all. We know that we don’t just rid our land of the chief cities but also the children-cities within.

So, beginning with the sneaky Gibeonites, representing the eighth and the Lake of Fire/Last Great Day, he is the man of perdition of the Seven. The Lord is about to show the Elect, who negatively begin as The Great Whore, the process of getting rid of our spiritual enemies, starting with us, and represented as Benjamin, Joseph’s blood brother with us, drinking from the same “cup” (Gibeon – cup; bowl) as their Lord.

We are the Beast and Great Whore, becoming fully developed and signified as Israel from Mt Sinai through her many upcoming whoredoms.

Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 
Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 
Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: 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.
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. 
Rev 17:7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. 
Rev 17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 
Rev 17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. 
Rev 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition [G684 – 1. destroying, utter destruction a. of vessels 2. a perishing, ruin, destruction a. of money b. the destruction which consists of eternal misery in hell; judgment]

Beginning with the destruction of the man of perdition (the eighth – Gibeonites), the Lord kills (disempowers) the head of the snake, Satan, and symbolically, the subsequent seven more powerful cities (than us) are destroyed along with him in the resurrection to judgment, including the eradication of death.

Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And if anyone was not found having been written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the Lake of Fire.

Satan is the ultimate eighth man of perdition who will have no power in the lake of fire. The Christs contend with Satan before the first resurrection, with the Lord Himself crushing the serpent’s head on our acknowledgement for our sins and the light yoke of the Lord’s work within. Yet, for the Elect of God and since they are not hurt by the second death, the destruction of the man of perdition to becoming Christ seems a long and drawn-out process.

Rev 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

At this point, it is highly informative to understand the spiritual attributes of all eight nations within, who are stronger than we are. The bulk of the cities are the seven descendant sons of Ham, and they infest the land of Canaan, the promised land. The eighth is the Gibeonites who, in shadow, represent an Elect who forgot their inheritance and election as we once did, and just as much later, treacherous Judah did. Israel is yet to be a fully puffed-up whore, and under Judah’s God-given right to hold and teach the oracles of God, Judah, represented here as Benjamin through the Gibeonites, became worse than her sisters.

Jer 3:9 And it happened, from the folly of her whoredom, she defiled the land and fornicated with stones and stocks.
Jer 3:10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, says Jehovah.
Jer 3:11 And Jehovah said to me, The backsliding Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah. 
Jer 3:12 Go and cry these words toward the north, and say, Return, O backsliding Israel, says Jehovah; and I will not cause My anger to fall on you; for I am merciful, says Jehovah, and I will not keep anger forever. 
Jer 3:13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have sinned against Jehovah your God and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice, says Jehovah.

Gibeonites

We have already spoken of the Gibeonites, who symbolize the Elect going before their brothers’ and sisters’ destruction. As we will soon see, the Gibeonites are a shifty bunch, cunningly trying to slip into Israel to destroy her from within. Typically, as did Achan, we deal passively with that enemy, thinking them inconsequential. However, for the Elect of God’s torturous learning, we “little by little” route the enemies from our land lest we be overcome by attacking them all at once (Exo 23:30). When any of us are given to kill the eighth, we spiritually outflank death entirely, and that is precisely what will happen to those in the Resurrection to Judgment.

Hittites

H2850
– Original: חתּי
– Transliteration: Chittiy
– Phonetic: khit-tee’
– Definition: Hittite = descendant of heth
The nation descended from heth, the second son of Canaan; once inhabitants of central Anatolia (modern Turkey), later in north Lebanon

Origin H2865 – 1. to be shattered, be dismayed, be broken, be abolished, be afraid.

From experience, typically, this is what happens spiritually to the Lord’s Elect. They launch into attacking the Jerichos and Ais in their lives with jubilant success, only to be shattered, broken and dismayed by their Lord’s seemingly heavy chastisement in their affairs.

Psa 22:1 To the Chief Musician, on the deer of the dawn. A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me, and are far from my deliverance, and from the words of my groaning?
Psa 22:2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not answer; and in the night, and am not silent.

Psa 107:21 Let them praise Jehovah for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the sons of man!
Psa 107:22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing! 
Psa 107:23 They who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24 these see the works of Jehovah and His wonders in the deep. 
Psa 107:25 For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves. 
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths; their soul is melted because of trouble. 
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and all their wisdom is swallowed up. 
Psa 107:28 And they cry to Jehovah in their trouble, and He brings them out of their troubles. 
Psa 107:29 He makes the storm a calm, so that its waves are still. 
Psa 107:30 And they are glad because they are quiet; so He brings them to their desired haven.

We reach our desired haven as we learn to walk up and down in the coals of our chastisements, and the King of Tyre that we are, learns to become Christ (Eze 28:11-19). We learn to take fire into our bosom at our Lord’s hand, who blazes upon our filthy clothes to be refined as pure gold dressed in white raiment.

Pro 6:27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
Pro 6:28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?

Of course, the Elect of God learn to precisely do that joyfully.

Girgashites

Of course, the Girgashites H1622, likewise, are the descendants of Canaan.
– Original: גּרגּשׁי
– Transliteration: Girgashiy
– Phonetic: ghir-gaw-shee’
– Definition: Girgashite or Girgasite = dwelling on a clayey soil

Adam and we were clay, made from water (the deep; the beast coming out of the sea) added to the dust of the ground. The Girgashites symbolise our raw clay state, which vessels the Master Potter shapes and reshapes of the highest quality to His good pleasure.

Isa 45:9 Woe to him who fights with the One who formed him, a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to its former, What are you making? Or your work, He has no hands? 
Isa 45:10 Woe to him who says to his father, What are you fathering? Or to the woman, What are you laboring over? 
Isa 45:11 So says Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and the One who formed him, Do you ask Me of things to come? Do you give command to Me about My sons, and about the work of My hands?
Isa 45:12 I have made the earth, and created man on it; I with My hands have stretched out the heavens; and all their host have I commanded.
Isa 45:13 I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways; he shall build My city, and he shall let My captives go, not for price nor reward, says Jehovah of Hosts.

Amorites

Ammorites are proud vessels made in their own image of importance.

H567
– Original: אמרי
– Transliteration: ‘Emoriy
– Phonetic: em-o-ree’
– Definition: amorite = a sayer
One of the peoples of east Canaan and beyond the Jordan, dispossessed by the Israelite incursion from Egypt.
Origin H559
– 1. to say, speak, utter
a. (Qal) to say, to answer, to say in one’s heart, to think, to command, to promise, to intend
b. (Niphal) to be told, to be said, to be called
c. (Hithpael) to boast, to act proudly
d. (Hiphil) to avow, to avouch.

Thus far, these names represent proud clay vessels made to be smashed and utterly destroyed by the Israelites, which parallels what our Lord does to us, as depicted in Nebuchadnezzar’s image in Daniel 3 and what Job graphically experienced.

Isa 30:12 Therefore so says the Holy One of Israel, Because you have despised this Word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rest on them;
Isa 30:13 therefore this iniquity [pride] shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant [a “swelling out in a high wall” is like a hernia; it is a result of poor structural integrity in that section of the wall and will ultimately collapse unexpectedly].
Isa 30:14 And He shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces. He shall have no pity, so that there shall not be found in the breaking of it a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water out of the pit.

Canaanites

Canaanites are the fourth son of Ham, and, along with their neighbours, the Ishmaelites were merchant traders by caravans.

H3665 –  to be humble, be humbled, be subdued, be brought down, be low, be under, be brought into subjection
a. (Niphal)
1. to humble oneself.

Spiritually, we are brought low and our pride smashed until we are brought into total subjection in Christ.

1Pe 5:5 Likewise, younger ones, be subject to older ones, and all being subject to one another. Put on humility. For God resists proud ones, but He gives grace to the humble. 
1Pe 5:6 Therefore be humbled under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you in due time,
1Pe 5:7 casting all your anxiety onto Him, for He cares for you.

Perizzites

H6522 – Perizzites are inhabitants of southern Canaan, and the seemingly innocuous meaning of their name is H6521 – 1. villager, rural dweller, hamlet-dweller. [in unwalled; villages]

Typically in Babylon today, as we have been, we believed in the safety of Jesus having done everything on the cross without us having to lift a finger. A Perizzite depicts us having once dwelt in the imagined safety that we have a husband and are not a widow, living luxuriously in His shadow while eating our own bread and wearing our own clothing.

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 clothing; only let us be called by your name, to take away our shame.

Rev 18:6 Reward her as she has rewarded you, and double to her double, according to her works. In the cup which she mixed, mix double to her.
Rev 18:7 As much as she has glorified herself and has lived in luxury, so much torment and sorrow give her. For she says in her heart, I sit as a queen, and I am not a widow; and I do not see mourning at all.

Hivites

Yes, they, too, are descendants of Canaan. 

H2333– 1. village, town, tent village. H2332 – Transliteration: Chavvah
– Phonetic: khav-vaw’
– Definition: Eve = life or living 1. the first woman, wife of Adam.

All the people of Canaan are the equivalent of the “deep” where the Beasts come forth; they represent the entirety of humanity, as seen by their name connected to Eve, the mother of all living. There is no escaping the fact that there is one event for all of mankind.

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. 
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. 

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

Jebusites

H2983 – Descendants of Canaan. H2982
– Definition:Jebus = threshing place
1. an early name for Jerusalem, the city of the Jebusites; also ‘Jebusi’
H947– 1. to tread down, reject, trample down
a. (Qal) 1. to tread down, trample (of warriors)
2. of rejection (fig.) b. (Polel) 1. to tread down (in bad sense)
2. to desecrate.

Ironically, since Jerusalem at a later date means “city of peace”, its earlier name decidedly meant downtrodden, a place spiritually for Israel and us for our threshing to bring forth righteousness as the new heavenly Jerusalem above.

So, we have the meanings of all eight names of the primary (full number seven) cities and people of sin within us. They all culminate in the eighth and the grand finale of death being destroyed at the end of the one-thousand year reign with the rod of Iron. Of course, many other heathen people and towns were plaguing Israel’s peace, as they do spiritually to us today, the budding sons of God.

In the next verse, the Gibeonites, who represent Benjamin, are those who abdicate their calling to be the Lord’s chosen. They look like ambassadors for Christ, yet have sneaked into the ranks of the Lord’s house with their Babylonian Christian doctrines on the backs and strength of asses with their mouldy worn-out traditions of men and the wine of a different Jesus. Again, they like the concept of salvation yet bring false humility symbolised by old sandals and clothing that forecast the eventual putting to shame the Old Covenant that is replaced by the spirit of Christ in the New. They can look like wheat but are tares.

Mat 9:16 No one puts a piece of new cloth onto an old garment; for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment, and the tear is made worse. 
Mat 9:17 Nor do men put new wine into old wineskins; else the wineskins burst, and the wine runs out, and the wineskins perish. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved together.

Jos 9:3 And when those who lived in Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, 
Jos 9:4 they worked slyly. For they came and acted as if they were ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their asses, and old and torn and bound up wineskins,
Jos 9:5 and old and patched sandals on their feet, and old clothes on them. And all the bread they had taken was dry and moldy.
Jos 9:6 And they went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, We have come from a far country. Now therefore, make a treaty with us.

Regarding any enemy of the kingdom of God and the consequences if we are slothful to fulfil our Lord’s commands:

Jdg 2:2 And you shall make no treaty with those who live in this land. You shall throw down their altars. But you have not obeyed My voice. What is this that you have done?
Jdg 2:3 And I also said, I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.

Jos 9:7 And the men of Israel said to the Hivites, Perhaps you are living among us, and how shall we make a treaty with you?

The Lord’s people unequivocally know that the enemy is living right inside of their sinful flesh from birth; we do not make treaties with them nor serve them.

Jos 9:8 And they said to Joshua, We are your servants. And Joshua said to them, Who are you, and from where do you come?

Although the symbol of Achan’s spirit was gone, the Lord was teaching Israel the machinations of other enemies for our spiritual learning. If we are given to always be on guard for the enemy’s attacks, we also know that if we fail to thoroughly clean one evil spirit out of our house by the entirety of the Lord’s word, he could return with many others worse than him. Also, if we are not practised at discerning the spirits, we will not know the origin of their alleged truth.

1Jn 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the [church] world.

Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walks through dry places seeking rest, and finds none. 
Mat 12:44 Then he said, I will return into my house from where I came out. And when he has come, he finds it empty, swept, and decorated.
Mat 12:45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and live there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so it also shall be to this evil generation. 

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Jos 9:9 And they said to him, Your servants have come from a very far country, because of the name of Jehovah your God. For we have heard of His fame and all that He did in Egypt, 
Jos 9:10 and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon [H2808 origin – account, reasoning, reckoning], and to Og [5746 – 1. (Qal) to bake, bake a cake], king of Bashan [H1316 – fruitful; the half-tribe of Manasseh], who was at Ashtaroth [H –  star n pr f deity 1. false Goddesses in the Canaanite religion, usually related to a fertility cult. H6238 –  1. to be or become rich or wealthy, enrich, pretend to be rich].

We can easily see the connections between the names of the enemies and their spiritual significance, that they are proud of their spiritual richness through their glorification of other gods.

Jos 9:11 And our elders and all those who live in our country spoke to us saying, Take provisions with you for the journey, and go to meet them. Say to them, We are your servants. And now make a treaty with us.
Jos 9:12 We took this bread hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came out to go to you. But now, see, it is dry, and it is moldy. 
Jos 9:13 And these wineskins which we filled were new. And, see, they are torn. And these clothes and shoes of ours have become old because of the very long journey. 
Jos 9:14 And they received the men because of their provisions, and did not ask at the mouth of Jehovah.
Jos 9:15 And Joshua made peace with them, and made a treaty with them, to let them live. And the rulers of the congregation swore to them.

That is how easy it is for an Elect of God to fall back into his old ways, especially if the multitude of counselors are babes in the Lord. Of course, if we are Body members and not Elders, we still are accounted as Elders since our hope is in the First Resurrection.

1Ti 5:22 Do not lay hands quickly on anyone, neither be partaker of the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. 

1Ti 3:1 Faithful is the Word: If anyone reaches out to overseership, he desires a good work. 
1Ti 3:2 Then it behooves the overseer to be without reproach, husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, well-ordered, hospitable, apt at teaching, 
1Ti 3:3 not a drunkard, not contentious, not greedy of ill gain, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous, 
1Ti 3:4 ruling his own house well, having children in subjection with all honor.
1Ti 3:5 (For if a man does not know to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) 
1Ti 3:6 not a novice, lest being puffed up he may fall into the condemnation of the Devil. 
1Ti 3:7 But he must also have a good report from those on the outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the Devil.

Jos 9:16 And it happened at the end of three days after they had made a treaty with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they lived among them.
Jos 9:17 And the sons of Israel journeyed and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim.
Jos 9:18 And the sons of Israel did not strike them, because the rulers of the congregation had sworn to them by Jehovah, the God of Israel. And all the congregation murmured against the rulers.

What an utter disaster! The process of spiritual progression through judgment (number 3) soundly made foolery of Israel, starting with the Elders. A “treaty” is a covenant with a level of sanctity equivalent to the spiritual morality of the individuals in agreement, and here we have one party morally corrupt and the other, babes to the Law. To boot, and for us spiritually, an oath between the parties soberly sealed the deal!

A spiritual lesson from this shifty deal is that we don’t allow false doctrine to coexist privately in our heavens or in the Body of Christ without the multitude of counselors. One sin potentially leads to a cascade of sins.

Mat 5:34 But I say to you, Do not swear at all! Not by Heaven, because it is God’s throne;
Mat 5:35 not by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet; not by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King;
Mat 5:36 nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. 
Mat 5:37 But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. For whatever is more than these comes from evil.

Pro 6:1 My son, if you are surety for your friend, if you struck your palms with a stranger [precisely what the Elders of Israel did],
Pro 6:2 you are snared with the words of your mouth, you are taken with the words of your mouth.

Jos 9:19 But all the rulers said to the congregation, We have sworn to them by Jehovah, the God of Israel. Now, therefore, we may not touch them.

For those seeking the spirit of that occasion, it is similar to remaining unwittingly under the law in Babylonian Christianity. If they are baptised by water or keep one of the laws of Moses, they are bound to keep the entire Law and cannot touch Christ, and the Christs cannot touch their doctrine ~ nor do the Christs remotely wish to touch the former things! If they do, they are slaves to the Law.

Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 
Gal 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

Jas 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. 

Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. [1Co 7:17-24]

Gal 4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. 
Gal 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. 
Gal 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

This slavery sometimes results in God’s wrath on us through the bondage of oaths, as in Israel with their enemy. It resulted in them living with a thorn in their sides every time they saw the woodcutters and water drawers and were painfully reminded of their sin, just as we are spiritually.

Jos 9:20 This we will do to them. We will even let them live, lest wrath be on us because of the oath which we swore to them.
Jos 9:21 And the rulers said to them, Let them live, but let them be woodcutters and drawers of water to all the congregation, as the rulers had promised them.
Jos 9:22 And Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, Why have you fooled us saying, We are very far from you, when you dwell among us?
Jos 9:23 And now you are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being slaves and woodcutters and drawers of water for the house of my God.

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

Jos 9:24 And they answered Joshua and said, Because it was certainly told your servants how Jehovah your God commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all those who lived in the land from before you; therefore, we were very much afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing.
Jos 9:25 And now, behold, we are in your hand. As it seems good and right to you to do to us, do it.
Jos 9:26 And so he did to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the sons of Israel, so that they did not kill them.
Jos 9:27 And Joshua made them that day woodcutters and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of Jehovah, even to this day, in the place which He should choose.

Indeed! The elect of God is ecstatic to be in the hands of Christ. All of our woodcutter and water-hauling works of the flesh are going and gone and replaced by His work within.

Mat 11:28 Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Mat 11:29 Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. 
Mat 11:30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.

[Study Aired October 20, 2022]

2Ki 8:7  And Elisha came to Damascus; and Benhadad the king of Syria was sick; and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come hither. 
2Ki 8:8  And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and enquire of the LORD by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 
2Ki 8:9  So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ burden, and came and stood before him, and said, Thy son Benhadad king of Syria hath sent me to thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 
2Ki 8:10  And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the LORD hath shewed me that he shall surely die. 
2Ki 8:11  And he settled his countenance stedfastly, until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept. 
2Ki 8:12  And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.
2Ki 8:13  And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The LORD hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. 
2Ki 8:14  So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover.
2Ki 8:15  And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead.

As was mentioned last week, the first section of chapter eight of 2 Kings represents more of the positive sowing that is happening by way of the woman who represents the body of Christ whose son was healed. In the verses we’re looking at in this section of Kings, we’ll see the negative tares that will be sown and used according to the counsel of God’s own will via king Hazael who represents Babylon within us who rejects the message of the true gospel of God (Eph 1:11). As always these things are written for our sake and for our admonition upon whom the end of the ages is come as they motivate us to ‘come out of her my people’ that we be not partakers of her plagues (1Co 10:11, 2Co 6:17). 

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: 

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. 

After Hazael kills Benhadad the king of Syria, he in turn becomes the king of Syria as Elisha prophesied, and things just wax worse and worse (2Ti 3:13). Elisha was weeping over the future events he knew were going to come upon Judah just as Christ wept over Jerusalem (Luk 19:41-42). All of this story is to tell us the mindset we should have as the body of Christ as we near the end of this wicked generation knowing there is both an inward and outward application that God has to give us to understand. The world will not repent because of the hardness of their hearts, and those who do repent (Rom 2:4) are those who will be sealed with the holy spirit of promise experiencing God’s goodness in this age (Eph 1:13), typified by a set “mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof” (Eze 9:4, Mat 24:22). 

2Ti 3:13  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 

Luk 19:41  And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
Luk 19:42  Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

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,

Mat 24:22  And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

The elect are typified by these verses in Ezekiel that describe six men who came from the way of the higher gate which represents Christ who is judging God’s elect at this higher gate that lies toward the north from where judgment comes (Eze 9:2-3, 1Pe 4:17). There are six men representing our flesh which needs to be put off in order for us to be clothed with linen, which is a symbol of Christ’s righteousness within us making it possible for us to have a writer’s inkhorn^H7083 by our side, which symbolically means we can now read, hear and keep the sayings of the prophecies of Christ that bless us (Rev 1:3) due to his judgments which take us out of our previous foolish state of not knowing God (Pro 24:7, Psa 14:1). It is “one man”, and that one man represents Christ who is doing the work within us (Php 2:12-13) as we go into the court where the brasen altar is which represents a place of washing and repentance. All these thoughts in Ezekiel 9:2-3 lead up to the most important verse telling us the mindset of those who have been truly washed with the water of the word in this age (Eze 9:4).

Eze 9:2  And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar. 
Eze 9:3  And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn^H7083 by his side; 
Eze 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads (Eph 1:13, 1Jn 2:20) of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

2Ki 8:7  And Elisha came to Damascus; and Benhadad the king of Syria was sick; and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come hither. 
2Ki 8:8  And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and enquire of the LORD by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 
2Ki 8:9  So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ burden, and came and stood before him, and said, Thy son Benhadad king of Syria hath sent me to thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 
2Ki 8:10 And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the LORD hath shewed me that he shall surely die. 

The king of Syria represents Babylon who, although they seek the Lord, will not find the spiritual healing which will only come to a few in this life (Mat 22:14). Elisha coming to Damascus reminds us that Christ is not far from anyone (Act 17:27, Mar 12:34, Rev 3:20, Mat 13:16). Not everyone is being dragged to Christ, and even those who are dragged to Christ are not assured of continuing in a relationship with our Lord unless it has been ordained to be that way (Joh 6:44, Joh 8:31-32).

Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

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

Mar 12:34  And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.

Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

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

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.

So Hazael, at the request of the king, is sent to enquire of the man of God if he shall recover from his disease. Hazael is also told to bring a gift to Elisha “every good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ burden” which represents the many wonderful gentile (camel) works that we do in this life without giving credit to Christ for being the one who has done them (Mat 7:22-23). Bringing forty camels foreshadows the great tribulation and death that is going to come to the king of Syria, and the nation of Israel (2Ki 13:22) and represents the death of our old man within us as well (Gen 6:3).

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 

2Ki 13:22  But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. 

Gen 6:3  And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years (40 years x 3) (Deu 31:2 , Deu 34:7).

Hazael is now standing before Elisha and asks this question on behalf of the king of Syria: “Thy son Benhadad king of Syria hath sent me to thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease?” The treachery in Hazael’s heart has not been revealed yet and even when it is, he can’t believe that he is the murderous man: “But what, is thy servant a dog“, that Elisha describes with such detail in the next few verses (Pro 14:5, 2Sa 12:7).

Pro 14:5  A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies. 

2Sa 12:7  And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; 

Elisha’s response to Hazael is, “Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the LORD hath shewed me that he shall surely die.” So essentially Elisha was telling Hazael that Benhadad would have survived if he hadn’t killed him. The mindset of Hazael is typical of one who crucifies Christ afresh, and he was the king’s servant who betrayed him, representing our flesh that denies Christ and, but for the grace of God, would crucify him afresh as well “and put him to an open shame” (Mat 10:33, 2Ti 2:13, Heb 6:6).

Mat 10:33  But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. 

2Ti 2:13  If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself. 

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.

All these events unfolded as they did according to the counsel of God’s will (Eph 1:11) at the hand of a king’s servant, Hazael, who was caused by God to do these treacherous events to further destroy the kingdoms of men around him. 

God anointed these events through Elijah who was told of the Lord years prior, to “anoint Hazael to be king over Syria”, of which truth Elisha was just now coming to understand since he was not yet with Elijah at that point in time (1Ki 19:15-17). This all demonstrates God’s sovereignty over all the plans of mankind and how that plan is only revealed to the few (Amo 3:7) who, by the grace of God, don’t bend the knee to Baal (1Ki 19:18) as was explained to Elijah prior to his being commanded to go anoint Hazael (1Ki 19:15, 1Ki 19:1-14).

1Ki 19:15  And the LORD said unto him [Elijah], Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria: 
1Ki 19:16  And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. 
1Ki 19:17  And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. 
1Ki 19:18  Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. 

2Ki 8:11  And he settled his countenance stedfastly, until he was ashamed:^H954 and the man of God wept.

2Ki 8:11  Elisha began to stare. He stared until [Hazael] felt embarrassed. Then the man of God began to cry. (ERV)

ashamed: H954 bûsh boosh   A primitive root; properly to pale, that is, by implication to be ashamed; also (by implication) to be disappointed, or delayed: – (be, make, bring to, cause, put to, with, a-) shame (-d), be (put to) confounded (-fusion), become dry, delay, be long.  
Total KJV occurrences: 119

Everything Elisha says to Hazael and his reaction to those prophecies reminds us that the world does not know “the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes” (Luk 19:41-42, Eze 9:4, Joh 8:36). We are incredibly blessed to have His peace in this world, a peace that passes all understanding, given to us by God so we can endure unto the end (Php 4:6).

Luk 19:41  And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
Luk 19:42  Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

Eze 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

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

Php 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 
Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Elisha was broken up over what he knew was coming, but he was not overwhelmed or destroyed by it. Peace is not peace as our flesh wants to define peace, but peace comes to us when we can believe Christ and labor for our daily bread, which He gives to those who seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness (Mat 6:33). We labor therefore for that peace which passes all understanding, and it is peace that needs to be nurtured by thinking on things true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. Also think of the virtue of Christ we see in the body of Christ that goes out from each of us and any praise, think on these things so God’s peace can be sustained within us (2Co 4:8-10, Php 4:8).

2Co 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 
2Co 4:9  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 
2Co 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body [Eph 5:30]. 

Php 4:8  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

2Ki 8:12  And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. 

This section of scripture is a type of the destruction of Babylon at the hands of the wicked Hazael who was anointed to be this driving spirit in his day (Rev 17:16). The terminology reveals that this mayhem which is prophesied to ensue is synonymous with the destruction of the churches and false doctrines and strongholds in the flesh which mankind holds onto at all cost, “Their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.” It is very reminiscent of the ten horns upon the beast that shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire (Psa 17:13, Rev 17:16).

Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: 

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

2Ki 8:13  And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The LORD hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. 

Hazael then asks Elisha, is “thy servant a dog” that he should bring all this destruction, to which Elisha answers, “The LORD hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria“, meaning, “Yes, you are a gentile dog in spirit being used in the service of God to accomplish His will.” Of course Hazael doesn’t see it this way, and yet he won’t stop at anything to get to the prominent place of power after which he is lusting even after being given the witness by God’s servant, Elisha. It doesn’t matter what God’s elect says to people during the thousand-year reign, or even today for that matter. A man convinced against his own will (which is not free) is of the same opinion still (and that stubbornness is of God as well [1Sa 15:23, 1Sa 16:14]), the lesson being it is only Christ who can convert our hearts so that His spirit within us can give us the ability to believe and continue to abide in that belief until our last breath (Php 1:21).

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

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

Php 1:21  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

2Ki 8:14  So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover. 
2Ki 8:15  And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead.

In this 14th verse we see the forked tongue of the devil being revealed in Hazael who tells Benhadad the truth that he will recover, but fails to leave out the detail that he’s going to kill him on the morrow (Gen 2:16-17, Gen 3:1-5). 

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 
Gen 3:2  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 
Gen 3:3  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 
Gen 3:4  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: [“He told me that thou shouldest surely recover“]
Gen 3:5  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Something done “on the morrow” is a biblical phrase that often accompanies judgment as these verses below indicate. Keep in mind as we read those verses that “all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us”. In other words, that judgment is needful upon our flesh and it leads to life in Christ if we are blessed to be judged (1Pe 4:17) in this life (Gen 19:34, Exo 18:13, Exo 32:30, 1Sa 18:10, 1Sa 31:8, Jas 4:14-15, 2Co 1:20). 

Gen 19:34  And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. [First man Adam who cannot be ‘crucified with Christ’ (Gal 2:20, Gal 5:24)] 

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 32:30  And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.

1Sa 18:10  And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul’s hand. 

1Sa 31:8  And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa.

Jas 4:14  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 
Jas 4:15  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

The way in which he kills him ‘on the morrow’ is symbolic of how Babylon’s doctrines suffocate the life of Christ in us and blind us to the truth of God’s word which can set us free if we are granted to continue in them (Joh 8:31-32). He took a thick cloth and “dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died.” Dipping it in the waters of Babylon, not the living waters of God’s words, and spreading it on his face where, in a right relationship, symbolizes how we see Christ face to face in earnest (1Co 13:12-13, Eph 1:14). In Babylon, Christ is hidden from us, and there is no chance for life. The end result of these evil actions is that Hazael got the promotion he was looking for in his flesh as this is all that mattered to him.

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. 
1Co 13:13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 

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

Obviously Hazael is not a type of one who sighs and cries for the abominations of the world, but more perfectly demonstrates the problem with our carnal nature which needs to be destroyed by the brightness of God’s coming (2Th 2:8). 

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: 

Jer 29:1  Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;
Jer 29:2  (After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem;)
Jer 29:3  By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying,
Jer 29:4  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;
Jer 29:5  Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
Jer 29:6  Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.
Jer 29:7  And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
Jer 29:8  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.
Jer 29:9  For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD.
Jer 29:10  For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jer 29:12  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Jer 29:14  And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

This letter is from Jeremiah at Jerusalem to the captives of the Lord’s people in Babylon, and it signifies the words of the Lord to you and to me while we are in Babylon. In practical terms, this letter directs those of us who are coming out of Babylon to be patient with those who are still ensconced in and are now still firmly at home there in Babylon. This letter makes us to know that the Lord knows those who are His ‘while [we] are yet in our sins’:

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

This letter from the Lord’s prophet to those who were carried captive to Babylon reminds us all that all of our days are written in His book before any of those days ever came to be:

Psa 37:18  The LORD knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.

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

The Lord knows just “them that are His” long before that great blessing is apparent to us:

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

2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

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

This letter from Jeremiah the prophet to those captives in Babylon was obviously rejected by the false prophets among those captives, but they were a lifeline to those who were granted to hear them and to find guidance and hope in these words even while still living in the bondage of Babylon:

Jer 29:1  Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;
Jer 29:2  (After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem;)
Jer 29:3  By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying,

Take note that among all the trades, professions and careers to whom this letter is addressed, there are also “elders… priests… and prophets”, all of whom are by now undeniably ‘under the yoke of the king of Babylon’.

The Lord’s instructions are what we all will do while in that stage of our spiritual walk.

Jer 29:4  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;
Jer 29:5  Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
Jer 29:6  Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.
Jer 29:7  And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.

Children are spiritual doctrines:

Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom [Truth, the doctrines of Christ]; but the tares are the children of the wicked one [the lies of “the wicked one”]

Spiritually speaking we are being admonished to bring forth “good seed” even while we are in Babylon. Outwardly we are admonished to physically procreate even while we are still in Babylon. That is always whence the Lord’s people come:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her [Babylon (vs 2)], my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Judah and Jerusalem, as types of us, followed these instructions while not even being aware that we are in Babylon. We, the Lord’s own prople, ‘Jerusalem’ are a harlot long before being physically carried away into Babylon. About 70 years before Jeremiah the prophet, Isaiah was inspired to say this about the Lord’s people:

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

This harlot is declared to have once been “the faithful city”. This is true in the sense that when we are first dragged to Christ, we are truly broken and sincere. It is the Lord who broke our hardened spirit, and that took place while we were still “under the law”, still in Babylon.

Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

Our hearts are sincere, and those who are still “under the law… compass sea and land” to drag us down to the altar and “bring us to Christ” and while doing so they are totally unaware of ‘the stumbling block of their [own] iniquity’:

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

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.

This is “the stumbling block of [our] iniquity” because we, too, become those who self-righteously want to drag others to Christ as we know Him while we are still in Babylon:

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity [“his own righteousness”] that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our [“own” (Eze 33:13)] righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Here now is the exact opposite of iniquity. It always helps us understand when we can know what the opposite of anything is:

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of [“our own” (Eze 33:13)] works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For [G1063: ‘gar’, because] we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Truly it is the Lord who working in us both to will and to do His good pleasure:

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.

The following verses refer to those who have ‘moved heaven and earth to make one proselyte’:

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

When we first come to the Lord we do so sincerely believing that we want to know His will. While we are in this predestined spiritually immature position the Lord Himself tells us that we are to do what we are told by our leaders who are still under the law, but He also tells us that we are not to do what they do:

Mat 23:1  Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2  Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
Mat 23:3  All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Mat 23:4  For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
Mat 23:5  But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
Mat 23:6  And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
Mat 23:7  And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

When the Lord tells us “do not ye after their works’ He says it because He knows that is exactly what we will do, and in time we become ‘twofold more the [self-righteous] child of hell’ than those who the Lord used to help drag us to Himself:

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.

Babylon signifies the great whore who has carried us away captive from the Lord and His land and His temple. In time Nebuchadnezzar will destroy and burn down the house of God in Jerusalem because Jerusalem herself has become this harlot (Isa 1:1-4 and 21)

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Therefore the instruction to “seek the peace of the city [of Babylon]” is not an instruction to seek or even pray for the salvation of Babylon in this present time. The statement that “in the peace thereof shall ye have peace” is the same thing we are instructed by the holy spirit in the New Testament with these words:

1Ti 2:1  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
1Ti 2:2  For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

The prayers we are exhorted to pray here “for all men; for kings and for all that are in authority” are not prayers for the salvation of “all men” in “this present age” (Rom 8:18). Rather, we are simply to ask the Lord “that we may [be granted to] lead quiet and peaceable lives in all goodness and honesty” by ‘seeking the peace of Babylon’ and all men.

“Many are called but few are chosen” in this age. Only those coming out of Babylon are being saved in this age as “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”:

Mat 20:16  So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

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

The fact that the Lord calls us “the firstfruits” unmistakably implies a later fruit. Both the first and the later fruits are saved only “by grace through faith” (Eph 2:8-10). Our natural man, typified by the spirit of Hananiah, abhors the Biblical doctrine that says, “Grace chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts.” Here is how this verse is better translated:

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

The Greek word translated ‘teaching’ in verse 12 is ‘paideuo’, and this is how it is normally translated:

G3811
παιδεύω
paideuō
Total KJV Occurrences: 13
chastened, 3
1Co_11:32, 2Co_6:9, Heb_12:10
chasteneth, 2

Heb_12:6-7 (2)
chastise, 2
Luk_23:16, Luk_23:22
chasten, 1
Rev_3:19
instructing, 1
2Ti_2:25
learn, 1
1Ti_1:20
learned, 1
Act_7:22
taught, 1
Act_22:3
teaching, 1
Tit 2:12

Anyone who tells you the Lord is seeking to save all men in this age does not know the mind of Christ who told His apostles that He spoke in parables “lest they should be converted and I should heal them”:

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
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 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Any prophet who tells you that you need not be judged for your sins in this present time is a false prophet who prophesies ‘smooth things’. Anyone who tells you that you never need to be in Babylonian captivity, or that the admonition to “come out of her My people” has no personal application, ‘is not sent by the Lord’:

Jer 29:8  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.
Jer 29:9  For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD.

Hananiah was not taken to Babylon. He was not physically carried off into Babylonian captivity. Yet he was a false prophet who, like many false prophets today, was convinced that not everyone must serve the king of Babylon or fulfill the seven last plagues in their life. He apparently thought that because he had not physically been carried away to Babylon that therefore he was not under the Lord’s judgments.

Hananiah’s doctrine is the same spirit which in Christ’s day had the Jews believing they were “in bondage to no man” when at that very moment they were both slaves to sin, and they were even under the yoke of Rome. In spite of both of these obvious, irrefutable facts, this is what they said to Christ when Christ told them they must believe in Him to be “free indeed”:

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?

These Jews, as types of us. ‘We… were never in bondage to any man’, is the same lying spirit that was in the mouth of Hananiah who said the Babylonian exile of King Jechoniah would be over in two years. It is also the same lying spirit which teaches that Christ’s death was “substitutionary, rather than exemplary”. It is the very same lying spirit which denies that grace chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts (Tit 2:11-12). By teaching that Christ died so we do not need to die, this lying spirit denies that we with Christ are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God (Rom 12:1), that we must “die daily (1Co 15:31), that we must be crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20), and that we must fill up in our bodies that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for His body’s sake, which is the church:

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:

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

The Babylonian commentaries flatly deny there is anything behind of the afflictions of Christ. Gill is typical of most all commentaries. Here is what he says of Colossians 2:24:

“…there was nothing left behind of his sufferings, to be undergone by any of his people; he had drank of the cup and all the dregs of it; he had sustained the whole of his Father’s wrath, and all the curses of the law, being abated nothing, but was made perfect through sufferings; having perfectly suffered all, he suffered once and once for all, he will suffer no more; nor is there any need of his suffering more or again, for he has finished sin, wrought righteousness, made peace, and obtained eternal redemption; nor had he any partner in his sufferings, nor did he need any, or left any part of his sufferings to be filled up by others; for he endured all and the whole, which the law and justice of God could require in his own body, in the body of his flesh through death; of these sufferings the apostle does not speak, but of such which he filled up in “his” own “flesh”; and design the afflictions of Christ in his members, which are called “his”, because of that near union there is between Christ and them;” (End Quote)

Gill’s commentary is one I use often. Nevertheless, we must all come to see that Gill’s commentary on this verse is nothing less than the lying spirit which the Lord placed in the mouth of Hananiah, who also flatly disagreed with the words of the Lord through His proven, bona fide prophet, Jeremiah.

Today it is the scriptures themselves, and those who are faithful only to “that which is written” (1Co 4:6) which speak for the Lord. Let us compare “that which is written” with the lying spirit of Hananiah.

Here is “that which is written” concerning the sufferings of Christ:

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:

Compare those words to these  words of a modern day Hananiah:

“…there was nothing left behind of his sufferings, to be undergone by any of his people”.

Compare Gill’s words to the words of Christ in this story:

Mat 20:20  Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.
Mat 20:21  And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.
Mat 20:22  But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.
Mat 20:23  And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

Compare these words with the false lying doctrine of a ‘substitutionary atonement’:

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Exactly what did His Father send Him to do?

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Christ has sent us “that the world through Him might be saved”, and we are therefore to “fill up in [our] bodies what is behind of His afflictions for His body’s sake which is the church” (Col 1:24).

Gill, who is typical of most all commentaries on Colossians 1:24, has been given the same lying spirit of Hananiah who flatly stood against the words of the Lord through His true prophet, Jeremiah. The Lord had said He would punish the kingdoms “that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon”:

Jer 27:8  And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

The lying spirit which the Lord had placed in the mouth of the false prophet, Hananiah, said the exact opposite of what the Lord had told Jeremiah to tell the king and the priests, and the people of Judah and Jerusalem:

Jer 28:1  And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
Jer 28:2  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Being in spiritual Babylon obviously has nothing to do with our physical location. Hananiah, a false prophet, was just as much under the yoke of Babylon while he was lying to the people of Jerusalem, as were those who were carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon. Jeremiah was not physically carried away to Babylon either, yet he obeyed the Lord, and as true prophet of God, he had put his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and he was praying to simply live a peaceable life with all men. The true prophet will always be true to the Lord’s words which proclaim that ‘all these nations shall serve the king of Babylon’, even those who were not carried away in the first captivity.

Hananiah falsely prophesied from Jerusalem that “the Lord had broken the yoke of Babylon… from the neck of all nations, [and] “within two full years… all the vessels of the Lord’s house… [King] Jechoniah… with all the captives… [the Lord would] bring again into this place”.

This was the Lord’s answer to that lying prophecy:

Jer 28:14  For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and… thou [Hananiah] shall die, because thou has taught rebellion against the Lord”.

The rebellion Hananiah taught was that any Babylonian experience we might experience need not be as long as the Lord had said it would be:

Jer 29:10  For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

The rebellion Gill and company teaches is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement which says:

“…there was nothing left behind of his sufferings, to be undergone by any of his people”. (End Quote)

Hananiah had taken the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and had broken it in the presence of the priests, and of all the people:

Jer 28:1  And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
Jer 28:2  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Jer 28:10  Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and brake it.
Jer 28:11  And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.

Hananiah was calling the prophet Jeremiah a lying false prophet, and Gill and all who teach the damnable doctrine of ‘substitutionary atonement’ are calling the apostle Paul a lying false prophet for saying that there is yet something “which [is] behind of the afflictions of Christ”. Who are we to believe???

Will we believe the apostle Paul who taught that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice and be “crucified with Christ”, or will we believe the modern day ‘Hananiahs’ who say:

“…there was nothing left behind of his sufferings, to be undergone by any of his people”. (End Quote)

The spiritual ‘seventy years’ of captivity in Babylon signify the seven last plagues which seem like an eternity when we are enduring them. However, just as the seventy years had to be fulfilled before the Lord’s people could return to their land, so also the seven last plagues must be fulfilled before Christ will dethrone the king of Babylon within our hearts and minds.

Let’s consider the similarities of these two statements:

Jer 29:10  For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

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

When we have been granted to see that our necks have been under the yoke of the spiritual king of Babylon for a symbolic 70 years, and when we have spiritually come to see that we are coming out of Babylon by fulfilling the seven last plagues of the wrath of God, then, and only then can these promises be give to us:

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jer 29:12  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Jer 29:14  And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

What wonderful and encouraging words for those who are given to accept the words of the true prophets of God. Those are given to accept the words of Christ, which we all must do “with all [our] heart”.

Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

These words are the foundation for the words of the Lord to the church at Laodicea in:

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Being promised to sit with Christ in His throne just as He sits with His Father in His throne is the spiritual fulfillment of:

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

It is my fervent prayer that you and I will say with Paul only “that which is written”, and not deny that it is so written:

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

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:

1Co 4:6  Now these things, brothers, I applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us ye might learn not to think above that which is written, so that ye may not be puffed up, one over the one against the other.

May the Lord grant that we will reject the words of any modern day Hananiah who tells us the exact opposite of the proven and bona fide words of “that which is written” as Gill and almost every commentary teaches with their false lying doctrine of ‘substitutionary atonement’ which teaches:

“…there was nothing left behind of his sufferings, to be undergone by any of his people”. (End Quote)

May the Lord grant us all to perceive Him as our example and not as our substitute.

Joh 13:15  For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

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

Here is the rest of chapter 29:

Jer 29:15  Because ye have said, The LORD hath raised us up prophets in Babylon;
Jer 29:16  Know that thus saith the LORD of the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity;
Jer 29:17  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
Jer 29:18  And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them:
Jer 29:19  Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the LORD.
Jer 29:20  Hear ye therefore the word of the LORD, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon:
Jer 29:21  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie unto you in my name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes;
Jer 29:22  And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon, saying, The LORD make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;
Jer 29:23  Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, saith the LORD.
Jer 29:24  Thus shalt thou also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,
Jer 29:25  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,
Jer 29:26  The LORD hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the LORD, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks.
Jer 29:27  Now therefore why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which maketh himself a prophet to you?
Jer 29:28  For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is long: build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
Jer 29:29  And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet.
Jer 29:30  Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 29:31  Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie:
Jer 29:32  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, saith the LORD; because he hath taught rebellion against the LORD.

[Study Aired September 5, 2021]

Jer 17:1  The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
Jer 17:2  Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
Jer 17:3  O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
Jer 17:4  And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.
Jer 17:5  Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
Jer 17:6  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Jer 17:7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer 17:8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Jer 17:11  As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
Jer 17:12  A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
Jer 17:13  O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

In this study we will seek to know the mind of the Lord concerning the meaning of the word ‘heart’. We are told, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?”

Exactly what is ‘the heart’? This word ‘heart’ appears four times in the 13 verses of our study today, including our first verse:

Jer 17:1  The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

We are symbolized by ‘Judah’. In Ezekiel, Judah is symbolized by the younger of two harlot sisters who are married to the Lord. These two harlot sisters have been whores from their youth. They have “one mother” which tells us that these two harlots are within each of us and that they are ‘two’ because they witness to each other that they are the two stages of our harlotry against the Lord. However, we must notice that the latter stage or our whorish apostasy is worse than the earlier stage:

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

Eze 23:1  The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
Eze 23:2  Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
Eze 23:3  And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.

Who was the mother of these two harlots? The question answers itself. She is “the mother of harlots and of the abomination of the world”:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: 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.

All the religions of mankind have replaced Christ with “the imaginations of their own heart”, and that is who ‘Babylon the great’ is. She is a harlot who has forsaken Christ to find favor with the kings of this world.

Ezekiel tells us that this harlot comes to us in two stages – an older sister and a later younger sister who is worse and even more self-righteous harlot than her older sister.

Eze 23:4  And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.

Samaria is the capital of the northern kingdom which assumed the name ‘Israel’, and Jerusalem is the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah. Both are from one nation – Israel.

Eze 23:5  And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,
Eze 23:6  Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
Eze 23:7  Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.
Eze 23:8  Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.
Eze 23:9  Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
Eze 23:10  These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.
Eze 23:11  And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.
Eze 23:12  She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.
Eze 23:13  Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,
Eze 23:14  And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion,
Eze 23:15  Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:
Eze 23:16  And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
Eze 23:17  And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.
Eze 23:18  So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.
Eze 23:19  Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

These two sisters are not from different families. They are one family… “the daughters of one mother”. A stubborn mother she is, too, because she has a heart that is hardened by the Lord against the Lord:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

These two sisters symbolize our time in that family of harlots. We all come to Christ through this harlot system. Aholah symbolizes the early stages of that “experience of evil” (Ecc 1:13), and Aholibah symbolizes our later part of that experience of evil. But they are both “the daughters of one mother”:

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.

Neither ‘Aholah’ nor ‘Aholibah’ think of themselves as harlots. They have both convinced themselves that they can have the Lord’s name even as they commit spiritual adultery against Him. This is what we tell ourselves while playing the harlot against our husband, Christ:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

That is what we think of ourselves while we are in this despicable position of being given a ‘hardened heart’ (Isa 63:17). When the Lord hardens our heart, we are powerless to resist the temptations of the flesh, and the false doctrines which justify that weakness.

Notice how hopeless we are in that God-ordained condition:

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.

Exactly what is it that the Lord “hardens” to the extent that our will is not even a factor in what He is doing?

Exo 4:21  And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

What exactly is a “hardened heart?” It is a heart devoid of understanding the Truth. It is a heart which cannot know or understand who Christ and His Father are.

Notice what the Lord does to harden our hearts:

Job 17:4  For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.

Pro 18:2  A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.

Eph 4:18  Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

When the Lord hides our heart from understanding, takes away our delight in understanding, and darkens our understanding, He has given us a “hardened heart”, and we are merely a “son of perdition” in His hand (2Th 2:3), made to be taken and destroyed (2Pe 2:12). That is the pre-ordained fate of our old man.

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for  that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

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

Contrast a deceitful, hardened heart with a whole heart for the Lord:

Job 38:36  Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?

Psa 49:3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.

Pro 14:33  Wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath understanding: but that which is in the midst of fools is made known.

Pro 15:14  The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.

The seven churches of Asia are the complete apostate, harlot church. As a whole entity they did not have a heart that sought wisdom, understanding or knowledge of the Lord. This is what the spirit says to the seven churches:

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

The truth that these seven churches are the two-stage harlot wife of Christ within us lies in these words, which are repeated immediately following each admonition to each of the seven churches:

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

In other words, let Aholibah within us hear what the spirit has admonished Aholah, her older sister.

There were many evil kings of Aholah, the northern kingdom. The first was Jereboam the son of Nebat. There was Ahab and his evil conniving wife, Jezebel, Jehu, etc. Each king rebelled against the Lord as the nation became progressively more rebellious.

This is what we are told of Ahab’s father:

1Ki 16:25  But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all that were before him.

Yet we are told that the nation of Judah committed greater adulteries than Israel. This tells us that as we go from church to church, we are not getting closer to Christ. Instead, we are simply becoming more and more self-righteous, and becoming more entrenched in that most insidious sin of self-righteousness (Eze 33:13). It must happen in just that way to bring down the pride of the beast and the pride of the harlot that is within each of us.

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity [trusting in his own righteousness] that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

Judah (Aholibah) represents us when we have strayed so far from our Lord that we are forced to acknowledge our transgressions and our self-righteousness. When we are so far from the Lord that we are at our wits’ end, then we are forced to acknowledge our transgressions and our iniquity.

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

Nothing is more devastating to the kingdom of our old man than to have to acknowledge his self-righteousness, which stinks in the nostrils of the Lord.

Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our [self-]righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities [self-righteousness], like the wind [false doctrines], have taken us away.

Our sin is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond. It is gravened upon the table of our hardened heart and upon the horns of our altars. In other words, we are just that stubborn and rebellious and self-righteous.

This is exactly what Job had asked to be done to him:

Job 19:23  Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
Job 19:24  That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

When Job made this plea for his words to be memorialized, he was in the same place we are when we are symbolized in scripture by Aholibah, as the most egregious harlot. Because of our stubborn, rebellious, self-righteous nature, we all must be brought to our “wits’ end” before the Lord can give us eyes to see ourselves for the self-righteous whore we all are by nature.

Here is what Job said just prior to making that request:

Job 19:6  Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
Job 19:7  Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
Job 19:8  He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
Job 19:9  He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
Job 19:10  He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
Job 19:11  He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
Job 19:12  His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
Job 19:13  He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
Job 19:14  My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
Job 19:15  They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
Job 19:16  I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.
Job 19:17  My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.
Job 19:18  Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
Job 19:19  All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
Job 19:20  My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
Job 19:21  Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
Job 19:22  Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
Job 19:23  Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
Job 19:24  That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
Job 19:25  For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

Job’s friends, his wife and his children symbolize Job himself. The Lord is bringing us to see ourselves, our old man, as He sees our old man. In His time, “through much tribulation” we finally come to see that we are “vile”. It is only our hardened heart and our pride which will not relinquish the throne of our hearts and minds.

Our children and we are one family. We simply cannot, of ourselves, give up all we have worked for to establish the kingdom of our old man. However, the Lord knows just what is needed to destroy our old man and his pride and his kingdom:

Jer 17:2  Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.

“Groves [and] green trees” refers to the keeping of the “traditions of men” (Col 2:8). It refers to the “observ[ing of] days, months, times, and years”, so as to fit in with the Christ-hating societies of this world.

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

The “groves” which are mentioned so often in the Old Testament were places of worship at which pagans gathered seasonally to keep their pagan holidays and festivals which the Lord gave to them:

Deu 4:19  And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

The Lord laments the fact that He has caused us to follow the nations:

Jer 17:3  O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.

“Mountains” symbolize kingdoms in scripture, and the field is the world” according to our Lord Himself:

Dan 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

We are the Lord’s “inheritance”, and He is our “heritage”. He must cleanse us of our filthy ways before He can abide in us:

Jer 17:4  And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.
Jer 17:5  Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

Christ makes clear that this prophecy concerns Himself and His words:

Luk 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

It is a very instructive fact that the first thing formed by the Lord in a mother’s womb is not the brain of a child, but it is “the heart”. What does this “thing that [is] made” tell us about the invisible things of God” (Rom 1:20)? This is what we learn about the invisible things of God from the fact that the heart is formed first and then the head and the brain:

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

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

Depending upon ourselves or trusting in men or our flesh is to “follow our heart”, and when we ‘follow our heart’ we are inevitably “departing from the Lord”, and that is spiritual adultery.

Notice how closely related our carnal mind is to our hardened heart:

Deu 28:65  And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:

Dan 5:20  But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:

Our self-righteousness is as natural as breathing because ‘that which is natural’ first dominates, “and afterward that which is spiritual”.

Jer 17:6  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

Such is the fate of our old man. “A heath in the desert”, refers to “a juniper (from its nudity…)”

Here is the Hebrew word which is translated as ‘heath’:

H6176
עַרְעָר    עֲרוֹעֵר
‛ărô‛êr    ‛ar‛âr
ar-o-ayr’, ar-awr’
From H6209 reduplicated; a juniper (from its nudity of situation): – heath.

A juniper is contrasted with “a tree planted by the waters”:

Jer 17:7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer 17:8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

“The man that trusts in the Lord” is not living now with a hardened heart. “The man… whose hope the Lord is” does not “lean to his own understanding” and acknowledges that “it is God [who] works in [Him] both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

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

It is obvious that there is a very close connection between the heart and the mind, the “understanding”. The apostle Paul expresses this fact in these words:

Rom 7:15  For that which I do [by following my heart] I allow not [in the spirit of my mind]: for what I would [in my mine], that do I not; but what I hate [in my mind], that do I [through “the law of sin which is in my members”, my flesh, my ‘heart’].
Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law [of Christ] that it is good.
Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh, [my hardened heart]) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members [my carnal hardened heart].

Gen 6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Where did men get their “preparations of the heart”?

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

That is right! The Lord made us evil for our own day of our destruction:

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

“The thoughts of [our heart are] only evil continually.”

Gen 27:41  And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.

Abraham’s carnal ‘heart’ could not conceive of him and Sarah having a child in their old age:

Gen 17:17  Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

It is the Lord’s mercy which takes away our hardened “heart of stone” and replaces it with “a heart of flesh”:

Eze 36:22  Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.
Eze 36:23  And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
Eze 36:24  For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
Eze 36:25  Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
Eze 36:26  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

When the Lord replaces our “stony heart [with] a heart of flesh”, He is giving us a desire to please Him spiritually, and He is taking away our hardened carnal mind. Our hearts are not literal stone, and “a heart of flesh” is not a literal heart of flesh. “A heart of flesh” here is the positive application of the word ‘flesh’, because the truth is:

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

Deu 4:29  But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

Deu 4:39  Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

Deu 5:29  O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

Deu 6:5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

As the self-righteous, proud and stubborn whores we are, we think we are “a tree planted by the waters”, when this is the reality of who we are as the rebellious, self-righteous, pride-filled, carnal-minded old man we are:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Truer words than these have never been written:

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

It is a truly deceived heart which convinces itself that it is “rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing” when the reality is that we are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” It is a deceived heart in an adulterous woman who can convince herself that she had done “no wickedness”. Such is the extent of our pride in the self-righteous heart of our old man. That is just how concerned we are with our standing and our reputation with this world. That is how little our hardened heart cares for our reputation with the Lord.

The Lord sees right through us though and rewards us “according to [our]works”. We are not fooling him one moment. The Lord “searches the heart and tries the reins” and He gives us “according to the fruit of our doings”:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

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

Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

Our ‘works’ are not our own, good or evil. It is God who is working “all things” including the evil in the city… after the counsel of His own will. We do nothing of ourselves:

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 [good or evil].

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

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

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?

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

It is “His own will” that those who bear His name will live lives that reflect His character. If anyone thinks that “good works” are not required for salvation, that person has yet to learn that we are “created unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

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

“We are His workmanship.” Our works are not of ourselves. It is He who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will”. If we claim His name, we must live lives that reflect His character, and it is “by grace”, His chastening grace, that He sees to it His “very elect” are made to reflect His character:

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

The word translated as ‘teaching’ in Titus 2:12 is the Greek word ‘paideuo’. It is most often translated as ‘chastening’, as in this verse of scripture:

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

Here is Strong’s definition of this word followed by the list of entries and the various translations of this word in the King James Version:

G3811
παιδεύω
paideuō
pahee-dyoo’-o

From G3816; to train up a child, that is, educate, or (by implication) discipline (by punishment): – chasten (-ise), instruct, learn, teach.

Here is how ‘paideuo’ is variously translated in the King James Version:

G3811
παιδεύω
paideuō
Total KJV Occurrences: 13
chastened, 3
1Co_11:32, 2Co_6:9, Heb_12:10
chasteneth, 2
Heb_12:6-7 (2)
chastise, 2
Luk_23:16, Luk_23:22
chasten, 1
Rev_3:19
instructing, 1
2Ti_2:25
learn, 1
1Ti_1:20
learned, 1
Act_7:22
taught, 1
Act_22:3
teaching, 1
Tit_2:12

Our heavenly Father has no use for the ‘greasy grace’ in which far too many believe.  It was being taught in Paul’s day that we should “sin that grace may abound”, and Paul forbade that doctrine:

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

It is toward any who believe such lies that our next verses apply:

Jer 17:11  As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
Jer 17:12  A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

The riches of Christ are gotten only “by right” because they are all “tried in the fire” which is the ‘right’:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

“Gold tried in the fire” is the words and doctrines of Christ. That is “the place of our sanctuary” because our ‘sanctuary’ is Christ who is seated with His Father on His Father’s throne, which is high above all things on this earth.

Jer 17:13  O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth [not “in heaven”], because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

Luk 10:20  Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

The day is “at hand, even at the door” when the Lord Himself will manifest who is and who is not His people. He will then make very clear who serves Him and who serves Him not:

Mal 3:13  Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
Mal 3:14  Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
Mal 3:15  And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
Mal 3:16  Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
Mal 3:17  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Mal 3:18  Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

That is our study for today. I pray we are all on our guard against our own desperately wicked and deceitful hearts and that we can discern him that serves God and him that serves Him not.

Here are our verses for next week’s study:

Jer 17:14  Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
Jer 17:15  Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.
Jer 17:16  As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee.
Jer 17:17  Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil.
Jer 17:18  Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
Jer 17:19  Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
Jer 17:20  And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:
Jer 17:21  Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
Jer 17:22  Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
Jer 17:23  But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
Jer 17:24  And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;
Jer 17:25  Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever.
Jer 17:26  And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD.
Jer 17:27  But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

Hello Mike,

If you believe in God, then you believe that God created our bodies, and the way human beings reproduce was His idea, His creation. God created our hormones and designed our bodies to react a certain way around members of the opposite sex.

So here’s my question. If God designed our bodies to respond a certain way around the opposite sex, why does He criminalize it when our bodies simply do what He created them to do?  I have trouble making any sense of this. Wouldn’t it have been much easier for God to have come up with a different method for humans beings to reproduce? One that doesn’t involve lust or sin?

I am going to provide a link to a video discussion on this topic. You may even be familiar with one or both of these men. Anyway, I am supposing that their take on this is different than yours. Both of these men claim to be teaching the Gospel.

Thanks, R____

Hi R____,

The first thing I will tell you is that I have had the exact same thoughts you express here:

So here’s my question. If God designed our bodies to respond a certain way around the opposite sex, why does He criminalize it when our bodies simply do what He created them to do?  I have trouble making any sense of this. Wouldn’t it have been much easier for God to have come up with a different method for humans beings to reproduce? One that doesn’t involve lust or sin?”

What you say here about our sexual instincts is just as true about all of our fleshly instincts and the breaking of any of Christ’s commandments. Why did he make us to just naturally hate our enemies, disrespect our parents, lie, covet and put physical possessions ahead of spiritual wealth? Wouldn’t it have been much easier for God to have come up with a different method for human beings to learn to love their enemies, honor and respect their parents, always tell the truth, never covet, etc? Just like you, I did not see the need to have to overcome so many of the pulls of our flesh and to go through the humility of dying daily with Him on His cross.

I was personally especially frustrated with why in the world God would, after putting Satan in prison for a thousand years, after having turned the rulership of this world over to His elect who had overcome the beast within us all and were granted to rule with Him over the nations of this world for that thousand years, after going to all that trouble, why would He then release Satan again “to deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth” during “a little season [when] the thousand years are expired.”

Here is that story:

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
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.

The Defeat of Satan

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the

In the same presumptuous spirit (Job 40:1-8), I actually told God that if I were Him, I would have made mankind with perfect spiritual bodies to begin with, and I would have completely avoided all the “fiery trials” (1Pe 4:12) of this physical life, with all of its sin, shame, suffering, adultery, fornication, stealing and murder, and bearing His cross and being “hated of all men for His name’s sake”. In my Job-like self-righteousness I had a much better way than His way.

So I can honestly say that I can identify with what you say here, but I must also tell you that you and I are both very spiritually immature and ruled by our carnal mindset when we think in those very natural terms. Being flesh is a curse through which we are all predestined to live whether or not we understand why:

Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

The men you cite say, “He made us this way, so it must be good.” I sometimes wonder if either of these men bothered reading the scriptures except to find verses that seem to say that flesh is not evil in and of itself.

The Truth of the scriptures is that God made us “marred in the hand of the Potter [with] no good thing… in [our] flesh”. That is why we as men just naturally lust after women in our hearts. It is not that we choose to do so.  It is because “there is no good thing” in us because:

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 [the “old man” sitting on the throne of God in the temple of God, our bodies – 1Co 3:16 and 2Th 2:4], 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.

Now, here is the same question all men and you and I ask of God…

Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

…And this is the same answer God gave to Job:

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?

Why is this question even being posed if we are to revel in our natural state as this video suggests? “The natural… carnal mind… the works of the flesh” are condemned throughout scripture:

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

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 

The men on this video are both “the natural… carnal men”, as we all are. But in this video they are teaching that being natural and being carnal-minded is something we need to embrace and appreciate. There is a total absence of any of the admonitions found throughout scripture in so many, many verses such as these:

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 12:21  Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

1Co 6:18  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

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

I am well aware these two men have no use for the epistle of James, discounting him as “an apostle to the circumcision”, but these two men differ even with Paul and want us to believe we can walk in the flesh and still please God. They just ignore Roman 8:7-8. They tell us that flesh was created by God, and therefore it is good and should be appreciated. Anyone who has “the mind of Christ” will know immediately that the words and voice of these two men are definitely not “the voice of… the True Shepherd”:

Joh 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
Joh 10:5  And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

No one, neither Christ nor Paul nor I, advocates against taking good care of our fleshly bodies while we are in them. No one, not Christ, Paul nor I in any way condemns sex within the marriage relationship.

Heb 13:4  Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

God will also judge fornicators who teach and live lives of fornication:

Just because ministers were not tasked with performing marriages in scripture, there are many examples of “wedding feasts” where marriages were recognized by the entire family and community. There is no scripture promoting masturbation or homosexuality. Any form of sex outside of the marriage relationship is condemned in scripture.

Apparently these men have no idea what is meant by this message:

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

These deceived men actually argue that since God made us to just naturally lust after women, and since he put their breasts right there in front of us at “eye level”, He obviously intended for us to lust after women” with no need to restrain ourselves or war against that lust as long as we only lust after single women.

What incredible lack of understanding of what God is doing to mankind!!! Our trials in these dying bodies of “sinful flesh” are designed to demonstrate for us that all flesh is sinful flesh and that “in my flesh is no good thing” (Rom 7:18).

These men have defined fornication as prostitution and actually play down the tendency we all have to commit fornication. Compare the message of that video to these inspired words of scripture:

1Co 7:1  Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
1Co 7:2  Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

Whatever ‘fornication’ is it is to be avoided at all cost:

1Co 6:18  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

One of the blessings of being married is “to avoid fornication”.

The logic suggested in the video is that since God placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil right smack in the middle of the garden of Eden and He made it to appeal to “the lust of the flesh… good for food… the lust of the eyes… pleasant to the eyes… pride of life… a tree to be desired to make one wise”, that therefore God had no right to condemn Adam and Eve for doing what He made them to just naturally do. Their doctrine is that since God intended for man to eat of that tree, there should be no sin involved. After all, as both these men keep saying, “God made sex, so why should we ever feel guilty because we want to have sex with every sexy looking woman we see.”

Gen 3:6  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

The fact of the matter is that God intended for Adam to disobey Him so He would have an occasion to judge Adam for His disobedience, as we are plainly told time and again in scripture:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked [Adam and all in him] for the day of evil.

Pro 20:24  Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way? 

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

Mankind does not sin because it chooses to sin of its own free will. Mankind sins because it is corruption and flesh which was created to be destroyed through God’s judgment:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

The apostle Paul comes right out and tells us that when we sin, ‘It is not I that do it, but sin in my members’ operating on “the law of sin which is in my members”:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Here is the apostle Paul saying things those who want to excuse their natural actions will never say. Paul is telling us that God did not make us to revel in doing what God has made us to just naturally do. Paul is not reveling in the fact that he just naturally lusts after women.

Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Mankind is a “marred… vessel of clay… in the Potter’s hand”, and the Potter is in the process of making every man to conform to the image of His dear Son:

Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

God created us in Adam as sinning machines for the purpose of judging those sinning machines so that through His fiery judgments men would learn to live righteous lives:

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. 

I took the time to listen to that video just so I could answer you. Yes, indeed I am very familiar with those two men. One of them, with his entire family, has spent weekends at my home on several occasions back in the late 90’s.

Neither man knows what is the function of grace. One of the last conversations I had with him as my guest was over the location of heaven. He thinks heaven is a physical planet with a physical city called New Jerusalem. That should give you some idea of the depth of spiritual understanding these two men have.

I have never met the other man, but I am familiar with his writings, and in his writings he does the very thing he condemns Catholics and Protestants of doing. He defines words for himself and then uses them as he defines them. He defines the word ‘fornication’ as being prostitution, and then with his totally physical mindset, he tells you that if you lust after an unmarried woman you are not committing adultery with her in your heart, because she is unmarried and you are unmarried, so go for it. That is the way He actually believes; that since God made us men and women, and since He made us to naturally be attracted to each other, that therefore it is not sinful to have lust in our hearts.

While it is true that many of the churches of this world have no idea of the purpose God has in creating mankind as sexual beings, the conclusions drawn by these two men are nothing short of turning the grace of God into lasciviousness:

Jud 1:4  For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do not waste your time looking for anything in the writings of either of these men concerning all of the unnatural things Christ requires of those who name His name. Things like “love thine enemies… turn the other cheek… return good for evil… resist not evil,” etc.

You said:

If God designed our bodies to respond a certain way around the opposite sex, why does he criminalize it when our bodies simply do what he created them to do?

I can easily understand your dilemma because my flesh is the same as yours, but let God be true and every man a liar. That includes you, these falsely directing men and me. Let the Word of God be true, and whether we “have trouble making any sense of this” or not, let’s not deny what is right before our own eyes, telling us that God makes us as “wicked men for [our own] day of destruction of that old first man Adam, that man of sin, Antichrist, a brute beast made to be taken and destroyed.”

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

Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

How does God go about ‘making us to err from His ways’? This is how He has ordained that we are all wicked sinners, made to be taken and destroyed, so the new man can be born through the death of our old, wicked, sinful flesh and blood man:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

We are not the ones who are sinning of ourselves. We sin simply because God, the “one lawgiver”, has placed within the flesh of all who are “in Adam… the law of sin” which “makes us to err from His ways”. What can we do? We are helpless of ourselves to overcome this “law of sin… in [our] members”. The death of our old man is inevitable. There is just one solution:

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

There is a “carnal mind” and “the mind of Christ” which supernaturally helps us to fight against the carnal mind with which we are all born. Neither of these men see the need to fight this battle. There verses describe their doctrine to a ‘T’:

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.
Rom 8:6  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 
Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

You and I may struggle to understand why God created us with a carnal mind which ‘cannot be subject to the law of God’, but let us never deny that it is so. Rather, let’s cry out with the apostle Paul:

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

Let’s stop listening to men who “speak smooth things”, which naturally appeal to our carnal logic and carnal desires, and fight the good fight of faith:

Isa 30:10  Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

That is exactly what these men are doing, and in doing so they, like most ministries, are also making merchandise of God’s people. “This is the best $23 you will ever spend” are words in this video. When you hear anyone say one word about buying the gospel, you should know immediately you are not hearing the voice of the True Shepherd who said this:

Mat 10:8  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

These men are quick to point out that “God has ordained that they that preach the gospel shall live of the gospel” (1Co 9:14), but they do not want you to realize that the support of the gospel comes only from “cheerful givers” and not from the ‘peddling of the gospel’ which is specifically condemned in the scriptures:

2Co 2:17 For we are not as the majority, who are peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God in Christ, are we speaking.

You will not find one verse of scripture which is not in line with Christ’s words, “freely you have received, freely give.” You can find what the scriptures teach on this and most any subject, and there will never be any mention of money anywhere on the iswasandwillbe.com web site or any of the sites to which we link.

The scriptures are not “smooth things”, but they are “the Truth”, and when it comes to sex outside of the marriage union, you will not find one verse which condones such lascivious fornication. Rather, this is what you will find:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

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.

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Here is a verse which mystifies these two men who both teach that Christ did everything for us, and we have nothing to do but accept His sacrifice. Dying with Christ makes no sense to those who teach that false doctrine of a “substitutionary sacrifice” instead of “dying daily [with, and being] crucified with Christ”:

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:

Here is that verse in the CLV:

Col 1:24 I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for you, and am filling up in my flesh, in His stead, the deficiencies of the afflictions of Christ, for His body, which is the ecclesia.” (CLV)

I asked Concordant ministers, including one of these men in the videos, about that verse, and I was told, “If you can explain that verse, you will be doing something no one in this room can do.” The reason they cannot understand that verse is because they are preaching smooth things instead of this Truth:

2Ti 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Eph 4:22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 
Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 
Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

I am the first to acknowledge that none of us is capable of following in Christ’s steps and going ‘as a sheep dumb before his shearers’ to the slaughter of the cross. None of us is, of himself, capable of turning the other cheek when we are slapped in the face. We are no more capable of doing those things than we are of not lusting after a woman. Sex is merely one of many things God has given us to learn to control and use properly in both time and place.

We will all “fall seven times” and we will be forced to acknowledge that we are living in a sinful body of death. Only then, after we have been brought to our wits’ end, will we brought to cry out to God for His strength and His mercy. Only under those specific circumstances will any of us be delivered from the storms of this life which God Himself sends to us to make us to acknowledge our helplessness in fighting against sin in our lives.

What you and I just cannot understand, and which our flesh refuses to accept, is four times in Psalms 107 called, “His wonderful works to the children of men.”

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

This is what being brought to our wits’ end accomplishes:

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

These two men, whom I love and whom I know will, in time, come to know the Christ of all these scriptures, are totally unaware that the very purpose for the natural man is “to be taken and destroyed”. They are totally unaware that God made us all as “natural brute beasts” on the sixth day right along with all the other beasts.

I hope the Lord will grant you to see that the struggles you are enduring are part of what God has intended for all men to endure, and that in His time He will begin to destroy that beast within you and within all of us, and as that old man dies, our new man, Christ in us, will begin to grow:

Joh 3:30  He [Christ in us] must increase, but I [our old man who is still under the law for the lawless (1Ti 1:9-12)] must decrease.

Your brother who, Lord willing, is still dying daily to my own beastly carnal mind.

Mike

Hi Mike,

I would like to personally thank you for putting together this website. Your works have helped to reveal so many truths to me. The Lord has truly blessed you, and may He continue to do so.

Although I have read and seem to understand the scriptures and explanations given in your writings, when I try to read my bible alone I have problems deciphering the spiritual message/meaning behind certain stories or verses.

Please could you explain the spiritual application of the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38.

Why do brothers have to ‘go in and perform the duty of a brother-in-law’? Why did Tamar pretend to be a prostitute?

I have missed the message here, so please respond when you find the time. I appreciate that you’re very busy.

God bless,

S____

Hi S____,

Thank you for your encouraging words of gratitude, and thank you for your question concerning the spiritual significance of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38.

I have already written about the spiritual significance of this story. Please read this link, and if you still have questions, then feel free to get back to me:

Who Spiritually Is Tamar?

You ask specifically :

“Why do brothers have to ‘go in and perform the duty of a brother-in-law’? Why did Tamar pretend to be a prostitute?”

If you can see this ‘Tamar’, as well as the ‘Tamar’ who was the daughter of King David (2Sa 13), as being the persecuted, lied to, and abused Christ and His Christ, called “the Lord and His Christ” (Act 4:26; Rev 11:16), then you will understand the message of this story. Christ is the brother who raises us up and gives us seed even after we physically die.

Isa 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Act 8:33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.

Luk 20:37 Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Luk 20:38 For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

He does this because He loves us and wants only to make us to prosper, unlike Judah or Amnon who were only pleasing themselves. Tamar is a direct grandmother of Christ, who is the son of God. God’s elect are called “Jerusalem above”, and it is only our own spiritual seed who are God’s true children. All others are ‘sons of the bondwoman’.

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 Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Judah, who signifies God’s rejected anointed in the story of his relationship with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, is “he that is born after the flesh” of verse 29.

Those who lie to us, abuse and persecute us as the daughter of the king, are always those who claim to be the son of the king and who claim to be Abraham’s seed and who claim to be God’s people. However, their deeds reveal them to be the seed of their father the devil.

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.
Joh 8:39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.

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 story of Tamar’s subtlety in tricking her father-in-law carries with it the same message as the story of Rebekah, who lied to Isaac, and Jacob, who stole Esau’s blessing. Neither story is told to encourage us to be dishonest or to be thieves. But like the story of the unjust steward who was commended by Christ for his resourcefulness, the story of Tamar deceiving her lying father-in-law, Judah, carries with it the same message.

I hope that between what is in that FAQ and what I have given you here you can see why Tamar deceived Judah, and what is meant by “raise up seed to your [dead] brother”.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike