Rev 20:1-6 Those Who Have Part in the First Resurrection, Pt 3

[Study Aired June 20, 2025]

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.

In this study we are continuing to demonstrate what the scriptures reveal this “bottomless pit” is.

The sixth symbol of the fifth trumpet of Revelation 9 is the bottomless pit itself. Where and what is this thing called “the bottomless pit?” All of the commentaries think this pit and its smoke is speaking of some great false spiritual leader, and indeed it is. However, this great false spiritual leader isn’t interested in sitting in a physical temple. What He wants is the real throne of God within the real temple of God. So that is where we will all find him in our own appointed time; sitting on Christ’s throne within each of us, and it is there that this entire revelation is taking place, including the revelation of this ‘bottomless pit’.

John Gill’s Commentary is a very typical take on what this bottomless pit signifies:

“Rev 9:2 And he opened the bottomless pit,…. With the key that was given him; he made use of his universal power over all bishops and churches, enacted laws, issued out decrees, made articles of faith, and imposed them on men’s consciences, and obliged all to submit to his hellish principles and practices; and this, as it may be applied to Mahomet, the eastern antichrist, may regard the publishing of his Alcoran, and obliging all his followers to receive it as the infallible word of God.” (End Quote)

If ever we need to remember that we are to “read, hear and keep the things written therein,” it is as we consider what the scriptures mean by “the bottomless pit.” All the comments and commentaries, such as this comment by Gill, serve only to further the function of the smoke that comes from this thing called “the bottomless pit” blinding us from knowing what it signifies. The last thing in the world the Adversary wants us to know is the correct location and the Biblical understanding of where this “bottomless pit” is.

Some teach that this bottomless pit doesn’t even really exist until the beginning of the millennium, when Satan is cast into the bottomless pit and restrained for one thousand years. The first three verses of this 20^th chapter are quoted to make that point:

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.

As we just witnessed, the first mention of this ‘bottomless pit’ is in Revelation 9 where an angel is given the key to this ‘bottomless pit’ and is permitted to “darken the sun and the air by means of the smoke that arises out of the pit.” As we discovered in our study of Revelation 9, the smoke which comes out of the bottomless pit by which the Sun and the air is darkened is the 200 million ‘locusts”, which signify the false doctrines of all the false churches which obscure “The Light” of “the Truth” of Christ’s doctrines.

If we search for the phrase ‘bottomless pit’, we will find it seven times in the King James’ Version, and all seven are found only here in the book of Revelation. Here are those seven entries. The first three are right here in this ninth chapter of Revelation:

1) Rev 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless [Greek: abussos] pit [Greek: phrear].

2) Rev 9:2 And he opened the bottomless [abussos] pit [phrear]; and there arose a smoke out of the pit [phrear], as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit [phrear].

3) Rev 9:11  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

4) Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

5) 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.

6) 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.

7) 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.

The Greek word for pit is ‘phrear,’ Strong’s number 5421. This word is also found a total of seven times in the New Testament. Of those seven entries, four of them are found right here in verses 1 and 2 of Revelation 9. They are all emboldened above. It is also translated as ‘pit’ in Luke 14.

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

The remaining two entries are found in:

Joh 4:11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well [phrear] is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
Joh 4:12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well [phrear], and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

So the only time this Greek word ‘phrear’ or ‘pit’ or ‘well’ is used in this entire book of Revelation is in these two verses of Revelation 9. There is no ‘pit’ – the Greek word ‘phrear,’ Strong’s number 5421 – mentioned in any of the other five verses here in Revelation where we find the English phrase “bottomless pit.” The other five times this phrase ‘bottomless pit’ appears in the book of Revelation, it is translated from the single Greek word ‘abussos,’ Strong’s number 12.

What is so interesting and revealing, is that when we go to our concordance, we discover that the Greek word ‘abussos’ (Strong’s number 12, translated “bottomless pit”), appears more than seven times. This word ‘abussos’ actually appears nine times in scripture, and it is those two extra times where the meaning of “the bottomless pit” is made clear. Here is the first of those two very revealing entries.

Luk 8:31 And they [the demons named legion] besought him [Christ] that he would not command them to go out into the deep [Greek: abussos, the sea].

Before we get to the last remaining verse where the word abussos is found in the New Testament, let’s take note of what this verse in Luke 8:31 shows us about the world of demons. This verse reveals to us that demons, and all false spirits, much prefer to be enthroned in God’s church rather than to be sent out into the deep sea of all the uncalled masses of mankind. What newsman wants to be stuck with reporting on the lives of the common man, when he could be at the United Nations, reporting on the lives of the leaders of this world. Like all of us, demons want to be where the action is, and in the spirit world the action is where God’s people are either learning Truth or being deceived. Demons always seek to be preeminent and so do the children of the adversary, who are typified by religious leaders who do not like the doctrine of Christ:

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.

Mar 12:38  And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces,
Mar 12:39  And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts:

Where demons really prefer to be is in God’s very temple and sitting on the very throne of Christ, in the hearts and minds of God’s people:

Luk 20:45  Then in the audience of all the people he said unto his disciples,
Luk 20:46  Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts;

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

Diotrephes was possessed of the spirit of the adversary:

3Jn 1:9  I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.

Now let’s look at the only entry for this word abussos which we have not yet considered. It is this entry which will reveal to us where the ‘bottomless pit’ is located.

Rom 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down [from above]:)
Rom 10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep [abussos]? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
Rom 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

Notice how this Greek word ‘abussos’ or ‘deep’ is translated when we go back to the Old Testament and read the verse from where Romans 10:7 is quoted:

Deu 30:11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.
Deu 30:12 It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
Deu 30:13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
Deu 30:14 But the word [Christ] is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

So where is the abussos? Where and what is this thing referred to as “the bottomless pit?” The ‘abussos’, the bottomless pit, just like ‘heaven’ and just like the Word of God, is not way out beyond the milky way. Neither is it in the depth of the physical oceans and physical seas. The ‘abussos’ is within each of us, “in your mouth, and in your heart.” That is where “the abussos”, “the bottomless pit” is located, and that is where the smoke originates signifying all the self-righteous lies and false doctrines which “darken the sun and the air” in this fifth trumpet judgment of Revelation 9:1-12, which we are to “read, hear, and keep.”

So when we read in Revelation 20 that Satan is cast into the ‘abussos’ and is imprisoned with a great chain, he doesn’t ‘go’ anywhere. He is simply restrained under ‘house arrest’ in the very carnal minds of mankind, unable to lie to and manipulate mankind until the time appointed to be released from the ‘abussos’ and be commissioned as ‘the Lord’s hand’ to go forth and deceive the nations again. According to Deuteronomy 30, both the abussos and heaven are “very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart.”

What is the function of this symbolic “thousand years”?

Why does God imprison the adversary and give the kingdoms of this world over to the rulership of His elect for ‘a thousand years’ and then release Satan upon that very same world? What good or what purpose is accomplished by this time of ruling the kingdoms of the world and then releasing Satan to deceive the nations again?

The fact is that this thousand-year dominion of the Lord’s elect over the nations of this world is a work of our heavenly Father which is expedient in accomplishing His plan and purpose of saving “all in Adam.” Before we see what that plan and purpose is, we need to understand the spiritual significance of the number one thousand. One thousand is a multiple of the number ten, which our studies of numbers in scripture revealed to be the full blossom and the perfection of the flesh.

Spiritual Significance of the Number Ten

As we are told, even at its very pinnacle of perfection, flesh and blood are still nothing more than “corruption” which “cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”

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

So if the number ten signifies the perfection of the flesh with its ten plagues (Exo 7-11), its ten commandments ‘for the unrighteous’ (Exo 20, 1Ti 1:9), and its ten rebellions against God (Num 14:22), then what is the spiritual significance of one thousand? One thousand is just a multiple of ten, and it therefore signifies nothing more than an amplification of the perfection of our corruptible flesh. One thousand is in fact ten to the third power. Three, of course is the process of judgment, and that is exactly what we will see is the purpose, the function and the fruit of this symbolic one thousand years of the rulership with an odious rod of iron over the fleshly kingdoms of this world at the hands of God’s elect.

It requires the very spirit of Christ and His Father within us to keep reminding us that these very words are “within our mouths and in our hearts” and are addressed to “he that hath an ear” within the seven churches. It requires Christ Himself living within us to remind us that it is we who are told to “read, hear, and keep the things which are written in this prophecy.” The natural man cannot see how “all things are ours” (1Co 3:21-22), but the spirit gives us the “key of knowledge” which reveals to those who are given “eyes to see” that even this symbolic thousand years of the hegemony of the Lord’s firstfruit elect is part of our reward, even as the first resurrection is ours.

Here are those who will be in that most blessed event:

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 [those who rule with Christ for 1,000 years] 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.

“This is the first resurrection.” What is the first resurrection? It is those who John sees sitting upon thrones. It is those who are given to judge this world with Christ for a thousand years and then “judge angels” in a lake of fire which follows this thousand-year reign of God’s elect overcomers. We will be learning more about this ‘lake of fire’ later in this same chapter.

1Co 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? [for a thousand years] and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? [in the lake of fire] how much more things that pertain to this life?

The first resurrection is first because it is “the resurrection of life” Christ spoke of in John 5:27-29. It is the “blessed and holy… resurrection” for all those who had already been judged in “this present time” (Rom 8:18). Those in the first resurrection were the first to die to the carnal mind of their old man. The resurrection of those who first died in Christ was for those who were sometimes literally and sometimes symbolically “beheaded for their witness of Jesus and for the word of God.” The first resurrection is the resurrection of those who were granted to judge themselves here and now, thereby becoming those who are the first to be judged while still in these vessels of clay. The first resurrection is the resurrection of those who were first to lose their physical lives in favor of the promise of life in a spiritual body.

Matthew 10:39 is a principle which applies to every man in both the first and second resurrections:

Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

All judgment is the Lord’s chastening which will teach all men the Lord’s righteousness:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

1Co 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned [ to the “great white throne judgment] with the world.

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

“Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” They will appear at a later judgment to be “chastened of the Lord” which is the very purpose and function of Biblical ‘judgment.’

“Which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands” does not mean that these overcomers had somehow figured out a way to avoid keeping the things written in this book concerning the worship, image, number and mark of the beast. We know that is not what this means because we are told we are all “marred in the Potter’s hand… shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin” and that all men, “both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” will worship this beast and that he will “overcome and kill the saints.” That is the first state of all flesh:

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

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

Rev 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

You and I are both “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin.” We are all  “made of clay.” “Both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” is all inclusive. So what does “had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received [his] mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands” mean (Rev 20:4)?

Here is what that means:

Rev 15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, [and] over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

If we are granted “the victory over the beast, his image, his mark, and the number of his name”, then it can be said that we “had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands.”

If verse 4 tells us that the overcomers reign with Christ and His father for “a thousand years” and verse 6 tells us the overcomers will be “reigning priests of God for a thousand years”, it is obvious that all others will come up in the great white throne judgment which is destined to follow the “little season” of rebellion and worldwide deception which immediately follows this symbolic millennium. It is the “rod of iron” rulership which precipitates this rebellion, and this rebellion is expedient to give the Lord the occasion He is seeking to destroy all flesh and to bring the function of death to its much desired end, fulfilling this prophecy by the apostle Paul:

1Co 15:12  Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? [The doctrine of Hymenaeus and Philetus, (2Ti 2:16-18)]
1Co 15:13  But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
1Co 15:14  And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
1Co 15:15  Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
1Co 15:16  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
1Co 15:17  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is  vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
1Co 15:19  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
1Co 15:20  But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
1Co 15:21  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the [first of the] firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming [The second firstfruits, (Rev 14:4)].
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end [The final harvest “at the end of the year”, (Exo 34:22)] when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. [The great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death is the destruction of death, (Rev 20:13-15)]
1Co 15:27  For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
1Co 15:29  Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
1Co 15:30  And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
1Co 15:32  If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.
1Co 15:33  Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
1Co 15:34  Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

If the dead rise not at all… why are we baptized for the hope of the dead (Rom 8:23-26)? If the dead are raised, then there must be a resurrection to life for those who are being judged in this age. If there is a resurrection to life, then there must also be a resurrection to judgment, and those two resurrections must be separated by a literal kingdom of God’s elect ruling over the kingdoms of this world, followed by a rebellion which will give the Lord the occasion (Jdg 14:4) He is seeking to destroy all flesh:

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 sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. [“the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth”]

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will see what happens when the world is ruled by the Lord’s elect with a rod of iron for a thousand years and then given back over to 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 sea.
Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

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Jer 4:21-31 The Whole Land Shall be Desolate – Yet Will I Not Make a Full End

[Study Aired March 7, 2021]

Jer 4:21  How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
Jer 4:22  For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Jer 4:23  I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Jer 4:24  I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
Jer 4:25  I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
Jer 4:26  I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
Jer 4:27  For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
Jer 4:28  For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
Jer 4:29  The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
Jer 4:30  And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.
Jer 4:31  For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

Jer 4:21  How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

Outwardly Jeremiah is a prophecy of the impending Babylonian invasion and conquering of Judah and Jerusalem for rejecting their God and rebelling against His ways. “How long shall I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet” can be taken to be speaking of the standard and trumpet of the watchmen, warning the Lord’s people of their coming judgment. The standard and trumpet can also apply to the standard of the invading Babylonians and their trumpets which call their troops to begin the invasion and destruction of the Lord’s people for their sins and transgressions against their own Lord. Both scenarios bring about the same intended end – the judgment of the Lord’s rebellious people.

Jer 4:22  For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

This is the condition of humankind by nature. No man yet ever had to be instructed in how to lie, cheat or steal. Simply being placed into the proper situation to be tempted to lie, we of ourselves all succumb under enough pressure to do so. It is so easy to rationalize how it is much better to lie than to tell the truth. The same applies to cheating and stealing. In our self-righteousness we have no trouble at all telling ourselves that it is much better to cheat than to fail. Stealing is just as easy for our old man. He simply tells himself how much good he can do for himself and perhaps even for others if He just takes a little unearned substance or undeserved credit for how the Lord works. Because lightning does not immediately descend from heaven and strike us dead for our sins and transgressions, it very soon gets to the point that we do not even bother to rationalize our sins.

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

“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily” we just shamelessly pursue and satisfy our own deceitful lusts. As Jeremiah reveals just a few chapters later:

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The great motivational speakers of this world universally tell us to “follow your heart” while Christ warns us against being so foolish as to do so. Our heart is deceitful and wicked, and our Lord “searches” our hearts.

Rev 2:20  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
Rev 2:21  And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
Rev 2:22  Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
Rev 2:23  And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

An unrepentant, lascivious, stubborn heart is the meaning of our next verse:

Jer 4:23  I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

The ‘earth’ is clearly a reference to the Lord’s own chosen people who have turned away from Him to commit spiritual fornication with the ways of our flesh. The twenty-second chapter of Jeremiah is addressed specifically to the king and the people of Judah, the Lord’s own people:

Jer 22:1  Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

Then the Lord, speaking to this same audience says:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

“The earth… was without form and void” is just another way of saying “the earth… and the heavens… have no light” because they have no knowledge of their God. They have turned their back on Him and have committed spiritual fornication against Him.

The Lord has been very merciful and has not speedily executed His sentence against all the evil we have committed against Him. We have heaped up to ourselves the Lord’s wrath against the day of His wrath.

Yes, it is true:

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

This is also true:

Ecc 11:9  Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes:  but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

The Lord does not change. He is still the same in the New Testament. The longer we refuse to repent, the more fuel we are storing up for His fiery judgments within us.

Rom 2:2  But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
Rom 2:3  And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
Rom 2:5  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
Rom 2:6  Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

That is the message of this prophecy of Jeremiah:

Jer 4:24  I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
Jer 4:25  I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
Jer 4:26  I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

It is the mountains and hills, the very foundations of all the false doctrines within us, which tremble at the Lord’s presence and at the knowledge of His mind and His doctrines. The ‘man and the birds of the heavens’ of verse 25 are also the symbols of our old man and all his false doctrines, respectively. We, and all our lying false doctrines, flee at the presence of the Lord and His Truth. His Truth is called “fire in [the] mouth” of His prophets (Jer 5:14), and the fire consumes our old man and his entire kingdom.

Outwardly “at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger” refers to the coming of the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to destroy and burn down the cities of Judah and the city of Jerusalem for rejecting their own God.

We happen to be living at a time when this prophecy is being fulfilled both inwardly and outwardly for the very same reason. We have all rejected the Lord’s words inwardly, and this world has rejected them and is rejecting them outwardly and reaping the fruits of that rejection.

Jer 4:27  For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

The land shall be desolate, yet the Lord will not make a full end because He has promised in the previous chapter:

Jer 3:14  Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

One of a city and two of a family is indeed a mere remnant in “this present time” (Rom 8:18) but the Lord will use that ‘remnant’, which has been accumulating for the past two thousand years, as the “saviors” of all the rest of mankind who have ever lived:

Isa 1:9  Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Thankfully there will be a remnant who will fulfill:

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.

Isa 58:1  Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

Before we can become saviors we, too, must first be judged for our sins:

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?

The “earth” is the Lord’s own people, so these words are first for us:

Jer 4:28  For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

The Lord has made all things for Himself, yes even the wicked man within us for the day of evil within us. That ‘day of evil’ begins when we are born:

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

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

Our heavens above are black, and our experience is evil because of the nature of our earthy composition. In scripture the opposite of ‘heaven’ is not ‘hell’. In scriptural terms the opposite of the heavens is “the earth” from which we are made:

Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Contrary to what the great whore and her daughters teach, we are not spirits having a natural experience. Rather we are natural, dust and clay, earthy creatures having a spiritual experience, as the scriptures plainly state:

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

This is 1 Corinthians 15. It is known as ‘the resurrection chapter’, and this is all being said in hope of a resurrection.

However, our earth has a heavens in which the fowls of our heavens fly:

Gen 1:20  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

We may be totally unaware of it being so, but the fact is that our earth is ruled by the clouds of its heavens:

Job 36:27  For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:
Job 36:28  Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.
Job 36:29  Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?
Job 36:30  Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea.
Job 36:31  For by them [by the clouds] judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance.
Job 36:32  With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt.

This is how we are being judged by our own heavens:

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace;

The English words ‘bottomless pit’ are translated from the Greek words ‘abussos’ G12, ‘deep, sea… bottomless’, and G5421, ‘phrear’, pit, well.

Here is Strong’s definition of this Greek word ‘abussos’:

G12
ἄβυσσος
abussos
ab’-us-sos

From G1 (as a negative particle) and a variation of G1037; depthless, that is, (specifically), (infernal) “abyss”: – deep, (bottomless) pit.

Total KJV occurrences: 9

We must always “try the spirit” of Strong’s definitions with how the holy spirit uses a word. So here is how the holy spirit uses this Greek word ‘abussos’ in the New Testament:

G12
ἄβυσσος
abussos
Total KJV Occurrences: 9
bottomless, 7
Rev_9:1-2 (2), Rev_9:11, Rev_17:7-8 (2), Rev_20:1, Rev_20:3
deep, 2
Luk_8:31, Rom_10:7

This word is translated as bottomless only two times, not seven times as stated here. This word ‘bottomless’ is only found in the book of Revelation. The other two appearances of this Greek word ‘abussos’ outside of the book of Revelation are:

Luk 8:31  And they [the demons in the Gadarene demoniac] besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep [Greek:  G12 abussos, the sea of Galilee].

Rom 10:7  Or, Who shall descend into the deep [Greek:  G12, abussos]? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

According to Romans 10:7, those in the ‘abussos’ are spiritually dead, as Christ Himself asserted:

Mat 8:21  And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Mat 8:22  But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

Whether the adversary is hedged out (Job 1:10 and Mar 12:1) or is given to attack the Lord’s elect, it is the Lord’s elect the adversary wants most. The adversary knew this demoniac was about to be delivered, and they did not want to return to the uncalled who are the ‘sea’ of mankind (Mat 18:6, Rev 13:1)

Job 1:7  And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. [“Seeking whom he may devour” (1Pe 5:8)].

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Job 1:8  And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:9  Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10  Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Mar 12:1  And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.

Satan’s domain is in the ‘sea’ of unconverted mankind, but he is keen to expand his dominion into the chosen of God at any opportunity. That is the function of “the adversary… the tempter”.

Mat 18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 18:5  And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
Mat 18:6  But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

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

Satan’s most prized target whom He seeks to devour is the “manchild” (Rev 12:3-4), the Lord’s elect.

Luk 22:28  Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.
Luk 22:29  And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
Luk 22:30  That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child [you and me] as soon as it was born.

Here is Strong’s definition of the Greek word ‘phrear’:

G5421
φρέαρ
phrear
freh’-ar

Of uncertain derivation; a hole in the ground (dug for obtaining or holding water or other purposes), that is, a cistern or well; figuratively an abyss (as a prison): – well, pit.
Total KJV occurrences: 7

This is where this word appears in the Greek manuscripts:

G5421
φρέαρ
phrear

Total KJV Occurrences: 7
pit, 5
Luk_14:5, Rev_9:1-2 (4)
well, 2
Joh_4:11-12 (2)

In John 4 the Samaritan woman tells Christ:

Joh 4:11  The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well [G5421: phrear, the pit] is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

It is interesting to notice that the first two times the phrase ‘bottomless pit’ appears, it is translated from two Greek words, the words ‘abussos‘ and ‘phrear’. The Greek word ‘abussos’ is translated as ‘bottomless’ and is found only in these two verses. Where the word ‘bottomless’ appears in the KJV outside these two verses, it is simply being added by the translators, and does not appear in any Greek manuscript.

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless [G12: abussos] pit [G5421: phrear].
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless [G12:  abussos] pit [G5421: phrear]; and there arose a smoke out of the pit [G5421: phrear], as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit [G5421: phrear].

Revelation 9:1-2 is the only time those two words are found together. All the rest of the other five appearances of the phrase ‘bottomless pit’ is simply the Greek word ‘phrear’ – pit.

In scripture the word ‘deep’ often means the ‘sea’:

Luk 8:31  And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep [sea].

A better translation of Revelation 9:1-2 would be to replace the phrase ‘bottomless pit’ with the words ‘deep pit’. The sea is the ‘deep pit’ of dying flesh out of which all the Lord’s people are called. That is why Christ says that if we come to Him, we “pass from death unto life”:

Joh 5:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

1Jn 3:14  We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

All of Satan’s attempts to destroy “the man child”, the Lord’s elect, are used by the Lord to chasten and scourge every son He receives, just as he was sent by the Lord to try Job and chasten him for his self-righteousness. Job was chastened of the Lord as a type of those whom the Lord loves in this present time:

Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Job 2:5  But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

This typifies how the Lord deals with us if we are His “very elect”:

Mat 24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

This is what the Lord is doing in this prophecy.

Jer 4:29  The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
Jer 4:30  And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

“The whole city” is all our false doctrines within our Babylonian world where we are being carried away as a captive for our sins which already align with the doctrines of Babylon. Nevertheless, in our darkened and deceived minds we do not recognize our own deceived and blinded condition.

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.

Joh 6:65  And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

The generation which entered into the promised land came out of the generation whose “carcases fell in the wilderness”. We cannot and must not tell ourselves we are the generation that entered into the promised land, but we have nothing in common either with those whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. Rather, we must remember that “all things are [ours]”, both life and death. Then, and only then, can we understand that it is our own old man who is typified by those whose carcasses died in the wilderness:

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Heb 3:17  But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

“The world” is “the wilderness”, and that is where we find the Lord’s adulterous wife within each of us as we “read… hear… and keep the things written in the book of Revelation (Rev 1:3):

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.

This is the same woman who flees into the wilderness in:

Rev 12:1  And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
Rev 12:2  And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Notice, “her child was caught up unto God and to His throne”:

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

The woman herself “fled into the wilderness”, where she is nourished of God for “a thousand two hundred and threescore days”. 1260 days is the same as the forty and two months, 42 x 30=1260, during which the beast rules in our lives.

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

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:5  And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months [1260 days].

Here is the birth of this manchild:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Our judgment is the death of our old man, and it is “through death” we are given life:

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

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

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: [“We are…His flesh and…His bone” Eph 5:30]

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Likewise, it is through the death of the harlot Babylon that we become the faithful bride of Christ:

Isa 40:2  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins [Rev 18:6].

Isa 61:7  For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.

The great whore of Revelation 17-18 is backslidden Israel, and the salvation within us comes to us only through her death:

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

It is our birth in Christ which in time destroys our mother Babylon. In that sense Rachel typified Babylon when she died while giving birth to Benjamin, who in the story of Joseph typifies the Lord’s elect:

Gen 35:18  And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.

This is how our study ends:

Jer 4:31  For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

It is only through the curse of death that our blessings all come. Here is the New Testament interpretation of this verse of Jeremiah:

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.
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

The death of our mother Babylon is the birth of Christ within us, the “man child” turning every curse into a blessing for them who love God and are the called according to his purpose:

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

That concludes our study, and it concludes this fourth chapter of Jeremiah. Here are our verses for our next study:

Jer 5:1  Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
Jer 5:2  And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.
Jer 5:3  O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
Jer 5:4  Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
Jer 5:5  I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

Jer 5:6  Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
Jer 5:7  How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
Jer 5:8  They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
Jer 5:9  Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jer 5:10  Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’S.
Jer 5:11  For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.
Jer 5:12  They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
Jer 5:13  And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.

Isa 19: 11-15 The Lord Has Mingled A Perverse Spirit In… Egypt

Isa 19:11  Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
Isa 19:12  Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
Isa 19:13  The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
Isa 19:14  The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.

Isa 19:15  Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.

In our last two studies we saw how the Lord is in the process of drying up the waters of Egypt.  The “rivers of living waters” of the Truth of God’s Words have long ago been dried up and replaced by the deadly “waters of Egypt [and] the rivers of Babylon”. We have demonstrated that the holy spirit uses those two phrases interchangeably to speak of what are both the same spiritual condition within our hearts and minds:

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Spiritually speaking we are here told that the city in which our Lord was crucified is nothing other than Sodom and Egypt. Where does such an idea originate? It originates from the same spirit which inspired this prophecy of Isaiah:

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 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

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

“The great city wherein our Lord was crucified” is called “Sodom and Egypt”, and it is also first called a harlot right here is Isaiah.

Now let’s go back and look very carefully at that Revelation 11:8.

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Jerusalem, the symbol of the Lord’s own people, is called Sodom, and it is called a harlot. It is the use of the word ‘harlot’ or ‘whore’, which gives us to know that  “the mother of harlots” is the same apostate people of God, apostate Israel:

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.

Clearly these words are being directed to those who have been “nourished and brought up [as the Lord’s own] children”, who have now “rebelled against [Him]”, and are now “drunken with the blood of the saints… from Abel to Zacharias”:

Luk 11:47  Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
Luk 11:48  Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
Luk 11:49  Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
Luk 11:51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

While the churches of this world point their fingers at anyone but themselves, you and I are blessed to know that “this generation” means this generation reading these words from the time of Christ until today.

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

When the Lord’s rebellious people, in time, become aware that they have been carried away as captives to Babylon, this is their lament:

Psa 137:1  By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Psa 137:2  We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
Psa 137:3  For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
Psa 137:4  How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?

This is the point at which we are brought to see that the Truth of God, through the judgment of God, is being cut off from Egypt. Suffering with Christ has been replaced with substitutionary atonement, a ten-​second sinner’​s prayer and the prosperity gospel. When we come to see all of that, then Egypt’s destruction within us is well underway. The lack of those waters of Egypt causes, and brings about, the drying up of everything which is supported by that water. Those who work with flax are not in the waters, but they are nourished by those waters, and without those waters “they that weave networks” will cease to exist.

As we have already shown by the scriptures, ‘waters’ typify both people and the doctrines believed by those people and how those words and doctrines support their lives. If and when we come to see that everything upon which our own lives have depended for support is no longer able to support us, then it begins to dry up and cease to exist.

The waters of Babylon feed and support Babylon and all the activities and commerce of Babylon in the same way the waters of Egypt feed and support all the people and activities and all the businesses that are part of Egypt. When the waters of Babylon are dried up, Babylon will fall and be no more:

Rev 16:12  And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

Both Egypt and Babylon are but types and shadows of who we are at different stages of the Lord’s work within our lives.

Egypt and its waters typify our first contact with our Creator. It is while we are living by the waters of Egypt that we begin to see that we are enslaved to our flesh. We begin to see that we are enslaved to Egypt.  We realize that what saved us from starvation and brought us to Christ has now become a slave master:

Exo 1:8  Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
Exo 1:9  And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:
Exo 1:10  Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
Exo 1:11  Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.
Exo 1:12  But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.
Exo 1:13  And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
Exo 1:14  And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

Christ put all of this in these words:

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.

Physical Israel symbolizes our knowledge of Christ in the flesh only, as we all first come to know Him. At first we see Christ as a babe in His crib, then as a 12 year-​old boy questioning the teachers in the temple. Then we see Him as a teacher, working miracles, feeding thousands and healing their sick. Then we see Christ as a dying man on the cross, and our final knowledge of Christ is as a resurrected body which we can touch and with whom we can eat. We simply cannot yet know Him in the spirit. That carnal knowledge of Christ, with all the “carnal command[ments]” (Heb 7:12) that come with it, is the bondage that becomes our slave master, “the law… for the lawless”:

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
1Ti 1:10  For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

Heb 7:16  Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

At first Egypt appeared to be our savior, and indeed it gave us the land of Goshen, and for a time the Lord Himself caused us to prosper in Egypt. It was the Lord who first showed Himself to us, typified as Joseph in Egypt. But something happened and that which “[brought] us to Christ” somehow became a “schoolmaster” and a slave master to us:

Exo 2:23  And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
Exo 2:24  And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Exo 2:25  And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin [under the law for the lawless], that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23  But before faith [Christ] came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law [“for the  lawless”] 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.

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child [under the schoolmaster, the law], differeth nothing from a servant [Greek:  doulas (G1210) – slave, bondservant], though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Gal 4:6  And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Gal 4:7  Wherefore thou art no more a servant [a slave “under the law”], but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

The very meaning of the name Moses means ‘drawn from the waters’.

We must understand that the waters from which we are first drawn at this stage, are the waters of Egypt which empty into the “sea” out of which all flesh comes. We do not come willingly:

Isa 19:4  And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
Isa 19:5  And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
Isa 19:6  And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
Isa 19:7  The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.

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

Soon enough we will come out of Egypt through the gut-wrenching experience of the Red Sea. And yet this coming out of Egypt is but a precursor to later coming out of Babylon. However, before we can even go into Babylon, we must first enter into another even greater very trying time of dwelling in the wilderness, between Egypt and the land of promise. This experience lasts forty years, symbolizing a time of great trial which seems at the time to be an eternity, and it begins the process of the dying of our old man and the destruction of his kingdom within us:

Num 14:33  And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
Num 14:34  After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

Our old man only begins to die there in the wilderness. It is while we are there in the wilderness that we begin to be brought to our wits’ end, and we will even wish we could return to the slavery of Egypt. The pains and trials of life are just more than we can bear, and it appears to us that the Lord has brought us out here just to destroy us. Indeed our old man is in the process of being destroyed there in the wilderness, but the fruit of that experience is a new generation which will enter into the land of promise as type and a shadow of our new man.

Heb 3:14  For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
Heb 3:15  While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
Heb 3:16  For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
Heb 3:17  But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
Heb 3:18  And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
Heb 3:19  So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

In the promised land we are given the work of waging war against the giants whom God has placed there to try us while we are in our promised land. We are even given to build big outwardly very beautiful houses for God, and we experience what seems to be a time of permanent peace.

But even after we have experienced the typical death of our old man in the wilderness and we are granted to enter into the promised land typifying “heaven itself”,​ and after we have subdued many of the giants who have ruled over those nations within us, we are predestined to “lose [our] first love” (Rev 2:4) and become so corrupted that the Lord must send us off into a second time of slavery. In this state of slavery we are again seduced into feeling very comfortable in our bondage.

This is all of us each in our own time:

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?

Think about this. When we are taken away captives to Babylon, we are Israel, we are in the promised land, and we have turned our backs on God while at the same time self-righteously proclaiming that we are God’s Israel, His special people. At that point we have become so self-righteous that we have already spiritually been carried away into the  bondage of Babylon, and we aren’t even aware of our sad spiritual condition.

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.

We become so comfortable in Babylon that we don’t even realize that we are in bondage. The multitudes in Babylon never realize where they are spiritually, but it is there “by the waters of Babylon” that a chosen few are granted to be shown that they are a wild beast, a man of sin who is usurping and is sitting upon the very throne of God within their own hearts. Along with this knowledge, we are granted to overcome that wild beast who is always there, and to come out of Babylon and return to the Lord, and we are commissioned to begin to rebuild His temple. However, this second temple, typifying the Lord’s elect, is nowhere near as outwardly beautiful as the first temple we were given to build.

Zec 4:1  And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,
Zec 4:2  And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
Zec 4:3  And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Zec 4:4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
Zec 4:7  Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.
Zec 4:8  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Zec 4:9  The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.
Zec 4:10  For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
Zec 4:11  Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
Zec 4:12  And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
Zec 4:13  And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:14  Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

This 4th chapter of Zechariah is explained in the 11th chapter of Revelation:

Rev 11:1  And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
Rev 11:6  These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Rev 11:9  And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
Rev 11:10  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
Rev 11:11  And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
Rev 11:12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
Rev 11:13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Rev 11:14  The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.
Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Rev 11:16  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

It is “the temple of God in heaven”, which is typified by the second much smaller and much less outwardly glorious temple, which typifies the Lord’s elect in whom He dwells (1Co 3:16 and 2Co 6:16).

Hag 2:9  The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

This latter temple is so small and despised that it seems to have no glory at all when compared to the first temple we built. But it is this “time of small things” that the Lord will use to finish His work within us and make us far greater and far more glorious that the earthly glory of our first temple, where all we knew was “Christ after the flesh”. “Henceforth know we Him no more… after the flesh.”

Exo 2:10  And the child [Moses] grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

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

Zec 4:10  For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

It is those who make up this “latter temple” who know where the living waters of life are. They are the ones out of whose bellies will flow “rivers of living water”:

Here again are a few verses which show us the spiritual meaning of the word ‘waters’ in the scriptures:

Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Rev 17:15  And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

Rev 21:6  And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

So waters symbolize both the people and the words and doctrines of Christ as well as the people and the words and doctrines of Egypt and Babylon. When the Lord’s Truth, those ‘waters of life’, are taken away from us, this is what we experience:

Amo 8:11  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

The words of the Lord are what prevents famine in our land. We are told that we are cleansed by the washing of His Word, which again is called water:

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

With the spiritual meaning of ‘water’ in mind, we will continue our study here in Isaiah 19:

Isa 19:8  The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

Who is it who is able to understand what the holy spirit is saying here through the prophet Isaiah? This is the answer of scripture:

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.

Concerning “They that go down to the sea in ships [and] that do business in great waters, what is it they see? What are “His wonders in the deep”?

The answer is given to us in the very next verse. This is “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.

Those who are given eyes that see know that “[God’s] wonders in the deep” consist of Him commanding and raising “the stormy wind which lifts up the waves” which melt our souls and bring us to our wits’ end. Only after that has been worked in our lives will He calm the wind and the waves which He has raised up. Only then will He bring us out of our distresses, make us glad and bring us to our desired place of rest, “[our] desired haven”.

That is a scriptural description of the Lord’s wonders in the great deep. “The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.” It sounds very much like, “He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They are at their wits’ end… their soul is melted because of trouble… they cry to the Lord in their trouble.”

“He” is of course the Lord Himself working His wonders in “the deep” where “they that go down to the sea in ships… spread their nets.” So what is the holy spirit speaking of in these verses about the need for water and the judgments of God which are symbolized by the drying up of the waters? This is all about the judgment which is now upon the house of God which we are (1Co 3:16 and 1Pe 4:17). Our Lord Himself tells us to what the scriptures are really referring when speaking of spreading nets in waters:

Mat 4:18  And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
Mat 4:19  And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Men are likened to fish in the Lord’s parables:

Mat 13:47  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:
Mat 13:48  Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.
Mat 13:49  So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

The great whore and all of her daughter harlots thrive on outward blessings which are called “the waters of Egypt”, and when those waters begin to dry up, this is what happens within us:

Isa 19:9  Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded.
Isa 19:10  And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.
Isa 19:11  Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
Isa 19:12  Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
Isa 19:13  The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
Isa 19:14  The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
Isa 19:15  Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.

This is the meaning of “the head and the tail”:

Isa 9:14  Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
Isa 9:16  For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.

This prophecy is addressed to our heavens and to our earth, and it begins by informing us that our “head is sick”. The head of our heavens and the head of our earth is our rebellious old man who “cannot hear Christ’s words” for the simple reason that we have been given ears that hear but simply cannot understand what they are hearing:

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 1:5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

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 13:14  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:

It is God Himself who has made us to simply not see the mysteries of the kingdom of God working within us.

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

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

When we are being judged there is no work or even a place in our lives for false doctrines. Those false doctrines used to be our leader, and they are now being destroyed, and they have no work to do within us:

Lam 5:15  The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
Lam 5:16  The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
Lam 5:17  For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

Those are the words of our rebellious, dying old man. Those dying words produce these words of life:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will see how the Lord will begin to work with Egypt within us:

Isa 19:16  In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it.
Isa 19:17  And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.
Isa 19:18  In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.
Isa 19:19  In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD.
Isa 19:20  And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.

Mike,
Can you tell me how a “day” is literal in Genesis as a first type but “face of the deep” is not?
YBIC,
M____

Hi M____,

The word ‘day’ is qualified by “the evening and the morning” six times, to tell us it is a 24 hour day under discussion.
As far as “the face of the deep” is concerned, it is both literal and spiritual as is the word ‘day’.  All spiritual words have a physical application.

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:

It is the inability to see “the things of the spirit” that keep the natural man in spiritual darkness.

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, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
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.

There was both a literal 24 hour day, and there was a literal “face of the deep”. But there is also a spiritual “seventh day” and a spiritual “face of the deep”.
I hope that answers your question. Let me know if it doesn’t.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike>