Audio Download – 1b

The Song of Solomon

Introduction – Part 1

The Foundation and the Distortion 

[First Part of the Study Aired August 14, 2026]

Opening Context: The Song of Solomon and the Primordial Curse

Originating in Adam’s love and idolization of his newly created companion, Eve, these introductory studies on curses will then turn to the specific curses upon Adam and Eve. We will take a closer look at how these curses impact them individually, their gender, and their interpersonal relationships—and, subsequently, all of humanity.

Ordained by God, Adam’s curse—not Eve’s—has borne the deepest weight of evil in human experience, imprinting itself upon a humanity that remained largely unaware of its own condition. Yet that same curse also conferred immense gifted-power upon Eve, and from that distortion came a force that has operated through women to reshape and rule as signified harlot churches, and, exponentially and literally, more vividly in more recent times, to order the visible governments of the world.

Isaiah 3:12 (KJV)  “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.”

Ecc 1:13 (CLV) “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 study is not merely about understanding curses in the abstract, but about recognising that the primal wound in Eden created an “experience of evil” that God uses to humble and ultimately transform His people. Corruptible flesh became the doorway through which sin entered the world, and therefore the divinely ordained occasion for the maledictive result to be introduced. By design, Christ the Saviour had to come in the flesh for His Bride to follow and model. “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:” 1Pe 2:21 (KJV)  

Solomon, with his God-given immense wisdom and understanding of humanity, and distinctly by first-hand experience of women’s beguiling artifices, bitterly lamented in Ecclesiastes 7 that no such woman (Babylonian church) existed who didn’t inherently gaslight men (in other words to ignore or degrade Christ). His personal observation of the incredibly beautiful, virtuous young Shulamite, Abishag, and Adonijah’s swift demise, no doubt, had a tremendous emotional impact on him. Abishag’s exemplary and utterly selfless devotion to King David, albeit a signified failure to reheat the dying Old Covenant, would have exceedingly moved him to see that she was a foundation for how a bride should conduct herself to be worthy of being a King’s Wife. The only enduring problem, even to the end of the Song of Solomon, was that it was impossible to believe, as seen in Ecclesiastes verse 29, that such a concept could exist. Nonetheless, Solomon, unwittingly guided by the holy spirit, put all his heart and spirit into creating in his mind how the illusory perfect Bride and subsequent Wife would ideally respond to him, where his 1,000 other wives miserably failed—and the Song of Solomon was composed, poetically portraying an already reversal of Eve’s curse. Even then, we shall see in the actual study of the Song of Solomon, the concept in action, as beautiful as it was, remained “far from him” to actualize. He desolately went back to satiating his lusts in “many strange [ethnically beautiful] women”, bitterly (Col 3:19) and unsatisfyingly. Accordingly, his Song of Songs signified Christ’s supreme Song of Songs to debut His Bride dynamically.

Ecc 7:26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.
Ecc 7:27 Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account: 
Ecc 7:28 Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found. 
Ecc 7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright [a seeming oxymoron—not deceived (1Tim 2:14)]; but they have sought out many inventions. [Meaning, that while deceived, they deliberately sin, and most eminently equally as conniving as women to get a woman, and any woman intimately!]

Rom 5:12 (KJV) Therefore, even as through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and thus death passed through into all mankind, on which all sinned -“
Rom 5:13 for until law sin was in the world, yet sin is not being taken into account when there is no law;”
Rom 5:14 nevertheless death reigns from Adam unto Moses, over those also who do not sin in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him Who is about to be.”
Rom 5:15 But not as the offense, thus also the grace. For if, by the offense of the one, the many died, much rather the grace of God and the gratuity in grace, which is of the One Man, Jesus Christ, to the many superabounds.”
Rom 5:16 And not as through one act of sinning is the gratuity. For, indeed, the judgment is out of one into condemnation, yet the grace is out of many offenses into a just award.”
Rom 5:17 For if, by the offense of the one, death reigns through the one, much rather, those obtaining the superabundance of grace and the gratuity of righteousness shall be reigning in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”

Notice in verse 13 that sin was already in the world. How? Because once Adam and Eve did one of the actions of looking upon the tree, touching or eating of it, they enacted the clause in Genesis 2:17; “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Meaning, flesh is made corruptible regardless of hypothetically not eating it, suggesting that they wouldn’t die. That, in particular, is where the false doctrine of the immortal soul was conceived.

Central Thesis

A curse is not a meaningless hex, a vague misfortune, or evidence of God’s arbitrary cruelty. A curse is God’s judgment—His corrective mechanism placed upon sin and rebellion to expose what is wrong, to bring consequence and pain, and ultimately to drag His people back into obedience according to His sovereign will. Scripture presents curses as sovereign acts of divine will that reveal both the depths of human rebellion and the ultimate necessity of redemption.

In the Old Covenant, curses operated through law and external consequence. In the New Covenant, the same laws operate spiritually through the mind and the holy spirit—God’s mighty power to develop in us an infinitely higher, righteous understanding of every subject in accordance with Christ’s mind, kept by the Elect of God. The curse now exposes every lustful thought, every hidden motive, every rebellion disguised as loyalty.

The Law of the flesh (as seen in Romans 8 and Galatians 5) and its intrinsic death were embedded in creation. A pricked conscience, and depending upon one’s potentially “seared conscience” (1Ti 4:1-2) affecting the individual, is the sudden realization that your actions, words, or thoughts have violated your own Babylonian moral code, ethics, or personal values, and for some folk, even like Adam and Eve, directly communicating with “the” Lord himself, namely an Elect of God, a far more profound dread. It is the psychological and emotional discomfort—commonly felt as guilt, regret, or remorse—that happens when your internal moral compass signals that you have done something wrong, typified by Adam and Eve hiding from the Lord before uttering dismissive words that excuse and accuse their actions.

Curse H7043 – 1. to be slight, be swift, be trifling, be of little account, be light, abated, contempt, despise, easier, lighter, revile, swift and vile all denote our casual attitude towards God’s word, provoking a curse for our trifling with its severity. 

Galatians 5:16-17 (KJV)“This I say then, Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

1 Corinthians 2:15-16 (KJV) “But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man… For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

The Bride—the Elect of God—is given the mind of Christ and the power of His spirit to judge all things. This is the transformation the curse produces.

Key Hebrew and Greek Terms

Qalal (קָלַל) Curseth — to make light of, treat as insignificant, despise, curse

The root carries the sense of diminishing value. To curse is to strip away pretence and expose what someone truly is—worthless apart from God’s chastising grace. When God “makes light” of something, He reveals its hollow core by the light of His spirit, revealing our negativity in making “light” or contempt for His Laws.

Arar (אָרַר) Cursed — to bind with a curse, to be bitterly cursed, placed under a curse.

This is the heavier word—the sense of being bound, trapped, marked. It suggests not a passing judgment but an entanglement with consequence. The cursed one moves through life, dragging the weight of judgment until repentance breaks the chain.

Katara (κατάρα) Curse H779 — curse, imprecation (moan, lament), a word or act invoking evil

In Greek, the curse carries the sense of speaking down (kata—down, ara—prayer or invocation). A curse is an utterance that carries holy authority, bringing a reality down upon the one cursed.

Ara (ἀρά) G686 — a prayer, imprecation, curse.

The broader term encompasses both petition and pronouncement. A curse from God is not capricious; it is a deliberate utterance rooted in justice and redemptive purpose.

Because Greek uses subtle accent changes, do not confuse G685 with these similar words: G686 (ἄρα): An inferential (hidden or implied) particle meaning “then,” “therefore,” or “consequently”. G687 (ἆρα): An interrogative particle used to introduce a question expecting a negative response.

The Old Covenant Blueprint: Curses as Covenant Consequence

When God established Israel under the Old Covenant, the terms were explicit:

Deuteronomy 11:26-28 (KJV) “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day; and a curse [H7045 – curse, vilification, execration from H7043], if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods which ye have not known.”

This is not cruelty. This is clarity. God laid the choice bare: obedience brings life; disobedience brings a curse. The Old Covenant operated in the realm of the flesh—external law, visible consequence. You could see it: drought, disease, defeat, exile. The ground refused to yield. The womb became barren. The enemy crushed you in battle. The curse was written on your circumstances.

However, here lies the first truth the individual jewel of the Body must grasp: The Old Covenant was designed to fail (Hebrews 8:6), not because God is weak, but because carnal flesh cannot keep the law of the flesh perfectly. The Old Testament is the story of a wife under law, repeatedly breaking covenant and, by God’s design, repeatedly bringing a curse upon herself through disobedience.

The Anatomy of Individual Curses

The Curse of Cain (Genesis 4): After murdering Abel, Cain is marked. Cain’s mark in Genesis 4:15 is understood spiritually rather than as a particular physical tattoo or identifying symbol. Cain represents the carnal/natural man—the first Adam and the flesh. Cain represents all humanity, driven by the carnal mind, works of the flesh, and self-righteousness. His killing of Abel pictures the flesh persecuting and destroying the righteous/ spiritual seed.

After Cain killed Abel, God placed a “mark” (Hebrew: owth) on Cain so that no one would kill him (Genesis 4:15). The mark represents God’s protection and, ironically, the preservation of the carnal man until God’s appointed time for judgment. God reserves vengeance for Himself rather than allowing Cain to be destroyed by others.

There is an important twist: Cain’s mark is not ultimately a mark of final condemnation. God was preserving Cain even as He judged him. The mark was a sign that vengeance belongs to God alone, ultimately pointing toward God’s redemptive purpose in Christ. This also connects to the mark of Christ. The Elect likewise have a “mark,” but theirs is associated with suffering, judgment, and being separated from Babylon while remaining in her, not doing what she does (John 17:1-26). Paul calls these his “marks of the Lord Jesus.” Again, it is not a physical mark or literal tattoo. It represents Christ’s Word and character being established in our hearts and minds—symbolised by the forehead, “the mind of Christ”—and expressed in how we live, symbolized by the hand (1Co 2:16).

Galatians 6:17 (KJV) “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

The framework resulting from Cain is: Cain → the carnal man → marked/preserved by God → cannot be destroyed prematurely → eventually subjected to God’s judgment → ultimately, God’s purpose is redemption.

This fits closely with the curse of the cross: God doesn’t simply destroy the flesh; He judges it, crucifies it, and brings forth something spiritual in its place for the Bride’s ultimate glory in Christ.

Cain’s mark represents God’s sovereign temporal (7,000-year) preservation of the carnal man. Only the Bride is given in this age to escape by dying daily to her Old Man. In the meantime, it protects Cain, representative of mankind, from premature destruction while God’s purpose unfolds. Spiritually, Cain represents the flesh, and his mark connects with the “mark of the beast”—the identity of mankind and the operation of the carnal mind—which must eventually be overcome through God’s judgment and the work of Christ and His Bride in the Great White Throne Judgment.

Noah’s Curse on Canaan (Genesis 9): A generational consequence following Ham’s disrespect. He effectively whispered his father’s nakedness to his brothers with derision. The curse passes down—not because God punishes children for parents’ sins capriciously, but because patterns of dishonor embed themselves in families, as does a little leaven then leaven the whole lump. (Galatians 5:9). The natural consequence of disrespect is servitude. “A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.” Proverbs 16:28. (KJV) That is highly likely to happen whenever we repeat another’s sins, which, spiritually, exposes their perceived or factual nakedness. Like leaven, the titillating whisper of shock, outrage, or laughingstock reveals our self-righteousness, pointing to that “evil sinner over there” while failing to see that we are more often the hypocritically wretched reprobate.

Genesis 9:25 (KJV) “And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.”

Ezekiel 18:20 (KJV) “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”

The curse is not mechanical transmission but the embedding of sinful patterns that subsequent generations inherit and perpetuate.

Joshua’s curse on Jericho (Joshua 6): After the miraculous collapse of the city walls, indicative of our city’s walls within, Joshua pronounces:

Joshua 6:26 (KJV) “Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.”

The curse bound the rebuilt city to tragedy. When Hiel attempted to rebuild centuries later, his firstborn and youngest died during construction—the curse executed with precision. Why? Because the curse was tied to covenant violation. Jericho was devoted to destruction as a testimony to God’s power. To rebuild it was, in other words, to say, “I do not trust God’s order. I will remake what He demolished.” That presumption costs lives. Besides, the younger son signifies an Elect’s dying for attempting to rebuild our city wall without calling on the power of Christ to resist the Devil (James 4:7).

Jericho represents more than a historical city. Jericho means “moon” (H3405), and its destruction represents the overthrow of the old, carnal/earthly whorish order of harlot churches within us. The warning against rebuilding Jericho, therefore, represents not returning to what God has destroyed in us. A person rebuilding Jericho simultaneously lays its foundation in his firstborn and establishes its gates in his youngest—demonstrating the multi-generational impact of refusing God’s clear word.

This connects spiritually with Samson, who mirrors our former slothful disregard for God’s power. He took for granted that his will supersedes the Lord’s, resulting in his being cursed to figuratively work the ground by grinding grain in prison, now spiritually shackled, blind, and remaining in servitude, nonetheless in deep, painful reflection on his own ways.

Judges 16:20-21 (KJV) “And she said: The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And awaking from sleep, he said in his mind: I will go out as I did before, and shake myself, not knowing that the Lord was departed from him. Then the Philistines seized upon him, and forthwith pulled out his eyes, and led him bound in chains to Gaza, and shutting him up in prison made him grind.”

John 9:40-41 (KJV) “And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”

The spiritual blindness of those who claim to see—who claim self-sufficiency and knowledge apart from Christ—is the deepest curse. While in Babylon, the Bride figuratively had her eyes put out, thinking she could see, when in fact she and her sisters were blind. The curse of Joshua on Jericho is deliberately designed to lead into Christ’s curse, which rescinds all curses affecting the development of His Bride.

National Curses: Deuteronomy 27 and 28 present a cascade of curses for covenant breach—famine, plague, military defeat, psychological torment, and exile. These were not abstract threats. Israel, the Lord’s first wife, experienced them. Every dynamic of those physical curses deeply damaged her ability to be a fruitful vine for her Husband and Lord. The nation experienced the curse as corporate judgment, visible in history yet hidden to the carnal man and dynamically lived by the new spiritual Man, the Bride of Christ.

The Old Covenant curse mechanism was an external judgment operating through law. You broke the law; consequences followed. Simple. Brutal. Inescapable. However—and this is critical—no one could keep the law perfectly. God knew it. The law was designed to fail, to expose humanity’s inability to obey through flesh alone. This is the wound the Old Covenant was meant to reveal.

Genesis 3:15 (KJV) “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

That “enmity” (H342 — meaning “hatred”) to the Babylonian mind is a strange paradox, since Satan is presented as the originator of endless lies. The woman—the Bride—knows inwardly, even though the 40,000-plus Babylonian churches semi-consciously refuse to acknowledge it, that they are confused (the meaning of Babylon itself and within), with no way of identifying their wounded head representing the first beast of Revelation 13, from which all carnal humanity originated.

In the age before the One-Thousand Year reign, it is only the Bride who is given to bruise the Serpent’s head, picturing the destruction of the carnal mind through the daily crucifixion of her old self. Akin to having her heel, as was her Husband’s heel nailed, yet hers bruised with a Jacob-like limp, its temporary reminder of our daily struggle.

Next study, Lord willing, we continue and begin with: “The Distorted Christian View: When Babylon Misreads the Curse.”

[Suggestion for Host to break here – 6 pages]***************

The Distorted Christian View: When Babylon Misreads the Curse

Here lies a scandal within Christendom that must be named clearly: By God’s design, the Orthodox Christian world has corrupted the biblical understanding of curses.

There are three primary distortions:

Distortion 1: The Denial

Babylon’s Claim: “Christians cannot be cursed. Jesus broke all curses. To speak of curses is to deny the efficacy of Christ’s work.”

This is a half-truth masquerading as doctrine. It comes primarily from the prosperity gospel and its spiritual descendants—the teaching that says the cross removed all consequence, all judgment, all discomfort from the believer’s life.

Scripture contradicts this plainly:

Galatians 3:10-14 (KJV) “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith.”

Those who cling to the law—who attempt to earn righteousness through external works—remain under the curse of that system. Why? Because no flesh can keep it. The curse of the law remains active for anyone who tries to live by the law rather than by the chastising grace through the faith of Christ.

Galatians 3:13 (KJV) “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law—meaning the impossible demand that we be perfect through external obedience. This does not mean curses cease to operate. It means Christ absorbed the legal curse so that the spiritual curse—the corrective judgment that exposes sin at the level of thought and self-will—could continue its work of transforming the Bride from carnal to spiritual.

Notice Samson’s mistake: “In his mind, I will go out as I did before, and shake myself, not knowing that the Lord had departed from him.” That is an Old Covenant classic case of one’s own will presumptuously taking God’s power and might for granted, operating corruptly in the spirit of his mind. This is precisely what Babylon within does: it assumes the Lord’s presence and power while abandoning His word. “But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.” 2Pe 2:10. (KJV)

The denial says: No more curses. Scripture says: A different order of curse now operates—one that strikes the mind, not merely the circumstances.

Distortion 2: The Superstition

Babylon’s Claim: “Curses are supernatural forces that can be transmitted through words, objects, or bloodlines. They linger like spiritual pollution unless ritually removed.”

This view treats curses as detached entities—floating powers that operate independently of God’s will. It creates a market for deliverance, for curse-breaking rituals, for the removal of “generational curses” through prayer formulas typical of contemporary Babylonian churches. The more theatrical Christian Orthodoxy becomes, the more seriously they take such superstitions. 

However, this is not Scripture. Every curse in the Bible is directly tied to God’s sovereign pronouncement. Cain’s curse came from God’s mouth in response to murder. Joshua’s curse was an authoritative declaration by a priest of God. The Law’s curses were conditions explicitly bound to covenant violation.

Curses are not autonomous forces. They are not demons masquerading as curses. They are God’s judgment taking form. When the curse operates, God is operating it.

The superstition holds that curses are a form of spiritual contamination. Nevertheless, Deuteronomy 28:1-68 makes clear: Curses are God’s corrective voice speaking judgment over sin.

This distinction matters profoundly because it means you do not pray to be freed from a curse as though it were an alien force. You recognize the curse as God’s corrective word, and you repent—you turn from the rebellion that invoked it.

Distortion 3: The Denial of Consequence

Babylon’s Claim: “God is love. A loving God would never curse. Curses belong to the Old Testament and Old Covenant only.”

This sentimental view strips God of His justice and strips curses of their purpose. It mistakes mercy for the absence of consequence. It confuses grace with the removal of judgment, when in fact grace teaches us through chastisement and IS the judgment.

Titus 2:11-12 (KJV) “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”

(Note: The Greek word pahee-dyoo’-o means: 1. to train children; 2. to be instructed or taught; 3. to cause one to learn; 4. to chastise or castigate with words, to correct.)

Grace is God’s “gracious love and favour.” However, Orthodox Christians rarely appreciate what grace does for us. When we sin, grace abounds all the more—not by excusing our rebellion, but through the loving chastening and scourging of our Father, until we finally learn how good it feels to stop fighting the lost cause of “turning the grace of God into lasciviousness” (Jude 1:4).

That is exactly what our Babylonian brothers and sisters do, as we once did. They think Christ’s work saves them on the cross, and that they don’t have to do anything because “Christ died for us, so we don’t have to die.” This is a lie—this is lasciviousness, greasy grace. Christ did not die, so you would never have to die. Christ died to show you how to die—and to give you the power to do it daily.

2 Peter 2:9-10 (KJV) “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed; they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.”

Yet the New Testament is filled with God’s judgment. Christ Himself pronounced the curse on the fig tree. Paul pronounced a curse of blindness on Elymas the sorcerer. Ananias and Sapphira died for lying to the holy spirit. Peter’s words to Simon the sorcerer carried the weight of a curse:

Acts 8:20-24 (KJV) “But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money… Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.”

Peter did not offer therapeutic comfort. He named the spiritual reality: Simon was bound in bitterness and iniquity, having blasphemed the holy spirit by unwittingly denying its power and thinking he could purchase it with money, thus representing his own righteousness. That is a curse—a pronouncement of his condition and its consequences. In verse 24, and hopefully to Simon’s God-given credit, he sought forgiveness, not a typical act of the flesh, thinking he could escape judgment by ‘presumptuous grace.’

Moreover, the entire epistle of Hebrews presents God’s chastening of His children as an act of love:

Hebrews 12:6-7 (KJV) “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth… If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?”

Chastening is a corrective judgment. It is painful. It is purposeful, and it is the mark of God’s love for His children.

The truth Babylon will not speak: God’s curses in the New Covenant are more personal and more piercing than in the Old, because they strike not flesh but thought—the very bone and marrow of the truth in spirit. They expose not merely external disobedience but internal rebellion. They are God’s intimate act of correction toward His Bride.

The Psychological Dynamics: Why the Curse Reveals the Heart—Including Christ’s

Here is what a jewel in the Bride’s Body must recognise about herself: Every curse in Scripture—in fact, the entire Old Covenant Law—is a mirror held up to human rebellion.

Galatians 3:10 (KJV) “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”

When you read of Cain’s curse, you are reading of your own heart in the moment you refuse to submit. Like Cain, you have come before God with an offering—your work, your effort, your attempt to earn favour through flesh. Like Cain, you have been passed over because what you brought was not what God desired—a blood sacrifice of a clean animal emblematic of a humble and contrite heart, signifying gratitude for supplying all our needs first physically, mirrored spiritually by the signified death of ourselves: “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31).

In that moment of rejection, does your heart turn toward humility? Or does it turn toward resentment—imaginatively “accusing and excusing ourselves” of acknowledging our sins (Romans 2:15)?

Cain’s curse followed his choice to remain bitter rather than repent. The curse did not create his rebellion; it revealed it and bound him to its consequence.

When you read of Joshua’s curse on Jericho, you are reading of the moment you hear God’s clear word—“This is finished. Do not rebuild it.”—and you feel the itch to improve upon His work, to redo what He has demolished. You think you see a better way. You believe you can make it work if you adjust His plan slightly. In that moment, you are under the curse of presumption. The curse does not come because God is petty. It comes because you have violated the covenant, and you must learn, through loss, what disobedience costs.

A curse is God’s corrective word made manifest in consequence. It exposes the hidden rebellion. It brings pain precisely so that pain might lead to repentance.

However—and this is where Babylon’s superstition completely misses the point—the curse is not punishment from an angry God. It is a correction from a covenant-keeping Husband.

Recall the truth: God is “married unto you.” He has bound Himself to your redemption. When you break a covenant, His response is not to abandon you but to bind you to consequence so that consequence itself becomes your teacher.

Of course, there is strong potential for God not to always strive with us when we, with a hardened heart, consistently disobey despite chastisement. This is a most fearful situation, slothfully pushed to the back of our minds—when we know to do good, and don’t do it (James 4:17).

Genesis 6:3 (KJV) “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”

In those dire circumstances, if we are indeed the “very Elect” of God, He will chastise us appropriately with fire—”Is not my word like fire?” (Jeremiah 23:29)—to make sure that we do honor and respect Christ, our Husband, and turn from our wicked ways.

1 Peter 3:20 (KJV) “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”

1 Corinthians 3:15 (KJV) “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”

Proverbs 22:3 (KJV) “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.”

The curse is the punishment. Punishment here means correction—the painful process of learning that disobedience leads to death. The curse teaches demonstratively what words alone cannot: This way leads to destruction. To experience loving correction appropriately, His fiery word comes alive. Thus, “a prudent man” is well skilled in his Lord’s fiery word. He doesn’t hide himself by denying his sin; rather, he acknowledges its coming possibility and calls upon Christ’s power within to rebuke Satan’s influence. Those who rely on their own power are punished much later, more likely with their destiny in the Resurrection to Judgment.

Luke 12:49-50 (KJV) “I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptised with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!”

Luke 24:32 (KJV) “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?”

New Covenant Transformation: The Curse Moves to Mind and Spirit

Here is the radical shift from Old to New Covenant: The curse no longer strikes the ground, our flesh. It strikes our thoughts—the very heart beneath our breast where the spirit of the Temple resides.

In the Old Covenant, if you broke the Law, your crops failed. Your children died in war. Your wife was barren. The curse operated in the external, physical realm. You could see it, measure it, and sometimes flee from it.

Christ fulfilled the Law as the pattern for us to follow—to die daily to the lusts of the flesh and fill up behind in our flesh the like afflictions that Christ experienced. The external demands have been satisfied in His person. So what becomes of the curse? It internalizes. It becomes spiritual.

1 Corinthians 15:46 (KJV) “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.”

Matthew 5:27-28 (KJV) “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

Do you feel the ground move beneath the covenant? Under the Old Covenant, a man could harbor lust in the secret chambers of his mind and still stand untouched by the spirit of the law. The law judged the hand; the deed, the outward trespass. However, Christ draws the blade inward: the law is now written upon the heart. Every lustful thought becomes covenant-breaking. Every concealed rebellion becomes infidelity. Even Babylon can stare at the plainness of this truth, yet with vacant eyes remains blind to the burning call to live it, breathe it, and make it real in the daily crucifixion of the flesh.

The curse of the law—“Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law”—now operates at the level of thought. You cannot hide. God “sees every thought before we produce it.”

This is not cruelty. This is intimacy. This is the fierce spiritual love of a Husband who will not stand by, as Adam did, watching Eve reach for the forbidden wisdom the Tree promised, and not just watch her lust, but participate in her sin with his greater and pre-eminent lust for her. He will not leave His wife to cradle and foment hidden rebellion in the dark. He draws it into the light, to destroy her, grind her to powder, and recreate her as a new vessel from the original lump of clay; not made malleable by water, but by wine, even the wine of his kisses, the holy spirit, and heals her heart.

Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 
Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 
Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 
Rom 9:24  Even us, whom he hath called, not [ultimately] of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? 

Isaiah 63:17 (KJV)
“O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?”

This is not an accusatory question. It is a question asked in recognition: Lord, I am your workmanship; you have exposed every place where my heart has wandered. You have shown me that I cannot hide. My hardness is revealed. Now what?

The answer comes not as increased judgment but as transformation through the holy spirit:

Ephesians 4:30 (KJV) “And grieve not the holy spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

We grieve the holy spirit when we are given it in relevance to wisdom given liberally (James 1:5), and like Adam without it, idly dismiss it to pursue our lust. In Adam’s case, every glorious sensuality Eve innately and innocently presented became her elated gift soon to be weaponised. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (Jas 1:5)  

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

The New Covenant curse is designed to grieve you—to make you feel the weight of your rebellion against a God who loves you with a love so vulnerable that your disobedience wounds Him. You are sealed unto redemption, but that sealing includes the holy spirit’s work of exposing every hidden thing so it can be burned away.

The curse in the New Covenant is the fiery trial of mental chastisement that purifies the Bride and prepares her for union with her Husband.

The Dual Recognition: The Curse is Meant for You

Here is the scandalous truth that Babylon is not given to understand: The curses of Scripture are written for your personal instruction.

In this age, it’s not for distant historical figures. Not for the broad “them”—the humanity yet to be raised in the Resurrection to Judgment, and distinctly not Orthodox Christianity to know, let alone understand. It’s for you; for the Elect.

Romans 15:4 (KJV)“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

When you read of Cain’s curse, you are meant to see yourself in the moment you refuse correction and without pouting at the chastisement. When you read of Joshua’s curse, you are meant to recognize the presumption in your own heart that believes you know better than God. When you read of the cursing of the fig tree, you are meant to feel the weight of bearing no fruit while adorning yourself with leaves, imaginatively hiding your nakedness of false righteousness.

For the Elect of God, each curse is a personal indictment to see spiritually.

Nevertheless—and this matters more than anything—each curse is also an invitation to acknowledge your sin for repentance and daily crucifixion.

The curse says, “This way leads to death.” You are bound to its consequences. The consequence is meant to teach you, to humble you, to bring you back to your Husband’s arms. Take up your cross. Die, and in dying, live.

Listen to the voice beneath the curse. It is the voice of a Husband who says, “I will not let you destroy yourself in one fell swoop. I will bind you to consequence. I will gradually make you feel the weight of your rebellion. I will expose every hidden thing because I love you. Because, and like Hosea with Gomer, I will have you back, because our union is worth the cost of your purification by my fiery word.”

Exo 23:29 I will not drive them [The giants of the land] out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. 
Exo 23:30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

The curse is corrective love. If you are a “very Elect,” it is God’s refusal to permit you to remain on the path of destruction. It is the boundary that says, “No further. Turn around. Come home.”

The younger son—often called the “prodigal” son in the King James translation—refers directly to the younger son or daughter, specifically to the young Bride of Christ, in which the principle of the elder always serving the younger is consistently scriptural. Nonetheless, the term “prodigal” is apt, as it means wasteful, extravagant, or recklessly lavish; which describes how the younger son spent his inheritance. Equally, his father, representing Christ and His Father, is unspeakably lavish and extravagant in his riches, first to Christ’s Bride.

Segue: From the Curse to Its Origins

We have now established what a curse is: God’s corrective judgment operating through consequence in the Old Covenant and through mental/spiritual chastisement in the New Covenant. We have named the distortions Babylon has created. We have seen that curses are written for our personal learning.

Every curse in Scripture traces backward to a source. Every judgment points to a rebellion. Every consequence reveals an act of disobedience.

At the foundation of all subsequent curses—woven into the very fabric of human history, unwittingly embedded in every marriage, every family, every institution, embedded in your heart—lies the primordial curse: the curse that fell upon Adam and Eve in the Garden, paving the way to all versions of iniquity.

Their wound became your wound. Their rebellion became the pattern you have inherited. Their curse shaped the dynamics of every relationship you will ever know, and most distinctly your marriages.

Continuing in Part 2 of this study, we will examine the curse of curses; Christ’s curse being hung on the cross, paving the way for his Bride to make herself ready. 

However, first, we must know this: The curse is not the final word. It is the corrective fiery word of Christ that precedes redemption.

God curses so that we will turn our eyes away from Sodom, Egypt, and Old Jerusalem (Jer 3:22, Hosea 14:4, 1 John 1:9). He exposes so that you will heal. He brings consequences so that you will gradually repent. Then—only then—comes the glory: the transformation of the cursed into the spotless Bride, the redeemed into the beloved, the wound of spiritual fruitlessness of being in Babylon’s sister’s vineyard of briars, thorns, and thistles into the richness of her Husband’s bountiful vineyard in unity with Him—demonstrated in the young vibrancy of a virginal Bride’s first taste of intimacy designed to imprint her on One Man. That is so critical to being chaste, since one’s first, and highly anticipated first genuine love with the opposite sex, with hopefully carefully restrained physical intimacies, as minimal as they should be, is even more intense. Juxtaposed against today’s expected hook-up culture, they remain cursed in perpetuity, trying most vainly to recapture the memory of virginal intensity.

Next study, Lord willing: Part 2 “Continuation: The Anatomy of a Curse: God’s Corrective Judgment and the Human Heart.”

The Curse of the Cross and the Primordial Wound

The Book of Joel – Chapter 3:1-2

And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?
And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. – Eze 37:3.

[Study Aired Sept 14^th]

The Book of Joel to this last Chapter 3, just as has every other testimony from Genisus to Revelations, warns man of the pattern of disobedience to his Lord’s word and guarantees consequences for disobedience and inevitable chastisement and “deliverance”.

Our Lord’s word is the pure Alpha and Omega of every opposing matter ever conceived by our first father, Satan, and our resonance with him results in assured failure. Nonetheless, our flesh, without the perplexing (holy) new spirit the Lord speaks of [only perceived as a new thing since it hadn’t yet been given more visually], will always default to escalating the sensual because the short-term thrill is far more exhilarating than the esoteric that can’t be physically experienced.

We fall seven times, and if we are given righteousness in this age before the First Resurrection, our earthy existence will likewise be given to rising from the furnace of our disobedience seven times ~ even seventy times seven (Matt 18:21-22. Pro 24:16).

Psa 12:6  The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. 
Psa 12:7  Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
Psa 12:8  The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.

The vilest men are exalted largely because you can see, hear, feel and experience their sensualities that the spirit only offers non-sensually, to be experienced by faith.

Jas 3:15  This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
Jas 3:16  For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

There is confusion largely because we default to the sensual, which is lusciously experienced with devilish ardour. This is a powerful and devilish argument against the spirit that can’t be physically touched and seen.

Jud 1:17  But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Jud 1:18  How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
Jud 1:19  These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the spirit.

1Co 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ [The foundation of the devilish physical sensualities that inevitably fail will always mirror the everlasting spiritual correlations].
1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Mat 18:21  Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Mat 18:22  Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

And so, around and around the deadly loop of disobedience, chastisement, and repentance leading to spiritual obedience continues for a symbolic seventy times seven. Then, even though that process doesn’t totally stop, Christ’s righteousness is attributed to us even though our sins are as scarlet (Isa 1:18).

Significations

Without the holy spirit and inseparable faith, no wonder old Israel grew weary of hearing her Lord’s “light bread” (Num 21:5) words since the pattern of suggested ‘deliverance’ continues in the opening verses of Joel 3:1,

The Lord Judges the Nations

Joe 3:1  For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

What Israel couldn’t understand is that without the enigmatic holy spirit, their ability to keep her Lord’s commandments was classicly impossible with assured tears of frustration.

Psa 6:6  I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
Psa 6:7  Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of [the impossibility of routing] all mine enemies [within without the holy spirit!].

Joe 3:2  I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat [H3092], and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. 

Jehoshaphat H3092 – Transliteration: Y@howshaphat- Phonetic: yeh-ho-shaw-fawt’ Definition: Jehoshaphat = Jehovah has judged n pr m

1. son of king Asa and himself king of Judah for 25 years; one of the best, most pious, and prosperous kings of Judah.

6. symbolical name of a valley near Jerusalem, which is the [equally symbolic] place of ultimate judgment; maybe the deep ravine that separates Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives through which the Kidron flowed. FROM H3068 and H8199

– Y@hovah – Phonetic: yeh-ho-vaw’- Definition: Jehovah = the existing one 1. the proper name of the one true God a. unpronounced except with the vowel pointings of 0136. 1. to judge, govern, vindicate, punish a. (Qal) 1. to act as law-giver or judge or governor (of God, man) 1a.

Armageddon G717

– Original: Ἀρμαγεδδών

– Transliteration: Armageddon

– Phonetic: ar-mag-ed-dohn’

– Definition: Armageddon = the hill or city of Megiddo.

In Rev 16:16, the scene of a struggle of good and evil is suggested by that battle plain of Esdraelon, which was famous for two great victories, of Barak over the Canaanites and of Gideon over the Midianites, and for two great disasters, the deaths of Saul and Josiah. Hence, in Revelation, a place of great slaughter, the scene of a terrible retribution upon the wicked. The RSV translates the name as Har-Magedon, i.e. the hill (as Ar is the city) of Megiddo.

– Origin: of Hebrew origin H2022 and G4023

– TDNT entry: 08:48,8

– Part(s) of speech: Noun Location

– Strong’s: Of Hebrew origin [H2022] and [H4023]; Armageddon (or Har-Megiddon) a symbolical name: – Armageddon.

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.
Rev 16:13  And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Rev 16:14  For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Rev 16:15  Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Rev 16:16  And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

The Valley of Jehoshaphat is another name for the Valley of Jezreel. At the western end of the valley is a small hill, or Mount Armageddon. Geographically and collectively called Meggido, this small valley, just 20 miles long by 7 miles wide, is just outside of Jerusalem and will symbolically contain the implausible vastness of “all [the physical] nations” of the earth represented as Gog and Magog, yet, and conclusively spiritually within, to battle and bloody destruction in our dying daily:

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 [literally and within], what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die
[The unconverted are effectively saying, ‘scriptures are too hard to understand; we may as well have wine, women and song and take what happens because God says that he is love and we are (deludedly) saved, anyhow’ by him dying in our stead].

Rev 14:19  And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Rev 14:20  And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

Very few valleys don’t exit via a stream. The valley of Meggido, just 20 x 7 miles in size, exited the huge volume of blood from the winepress of God’s wrath downstream for 322 km, or 1,600 furlongs (200 miles).

Hos 1:10  Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God [Solomon’s “two armies” Son 6:13 – The elder, Old Israel depicted as “you are not my people “and the second and younger Bride of Christ, “ye are the sons of the living God].
Hos 1:11  Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head [Each person, sitting on God’s throne saying that he is god 2Thes 2:4], and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the [slaughter in the] day of Jezreel. 

Jezreel H3157 –Definition: Jezreel = God sows n pr m 1. a descendant of the father or founder of Etam f Judah 2. first son of Hosea the prophet n pr loc 3. a city in the Nekeb of Judah 4. a city in Issachar on the northwest spur of Mount Gilboa – Gilboa H1533 = swollen heap 1. a mountain-ridge at the southeastern end of the plain of Jezreel, site of the death of Saul and Jonathan.

Every time Mt Gilboa is mentioned in the scriptures, its symbolism is accompanied by an immense swelling of our pride, fattening its host for slaughter. It all began with Israel’s whoredoms, graphically portrayed by Hosea marrying the known harlot, Gomer, and prophesying Israel’s day of slaughter. Of course, the Lord’s Bride knows that the most outstanding slaughter it all refers to is hers, for her whoredoms.

Hos 1:2  The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.
Hos 1:3  So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
Hos 1:4  And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
Hos 1:5  And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. 
Hos 1:6  And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away. 
Hos 1:7  But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah [Symbolically the Bride of Christ!], and will save them [The “remnant” spoken about in Joel Chapter 2] by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen [meaning, by their Old Covenant physical strength opposed to the coming of the mysterious (holy) spirit].

Zec 12:9  And it shall come to pass in that day [for the Bride of Christ, ‘the day of the lord’], that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem [meaning, the customised nations of opposition to Christ’s word within the Bride]. 
Zec 12:10  And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace [… doesn’t it make you shiver?] and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced [every man understanding in his order of salvation], and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Zec 12:11  In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon [H7426 Pomegranates synonymous with exaltedly and the Bride’s chastisements and subsequent returning to truth and the love of God] in the valley of Megiddon.

Afresh: “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land”.

Notice in Joel 3:2 that the Lord brings his people to the symbolic abyss of Meggido (Jehoshaphat) and “pleads” with her face to face in that wretched valley. She stares at the stark reality of its symbolism and what is going to happen to her if she continues to spurn his love overtures not to follow through for her inheritance. She knows that this valley is traditionally represented as a ‘valley of death’ ordained for immense slaughter. Even though she is brought to remembrance of her physical “heritage”, her “Promised Land”, it is her younger sister, the Bride today, who ecstatically knows it is Christ who is her spiritual heritage. It is the Bride alone who knows that she is to keep her garments pure. Otherwise, she, along with her elder sister, Israel, Gog and Magog will, as one, face being cast into the vastly more fearful spiritual death in the Lake of Fire, the Great White Throne Judgement.

Psa 23:4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me [with the Him, her promised heritage]. 
Psa 23:5  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil [the holy spirit]; my cup runneth over.
Psa 23:6  Surely [the hope of the First Resurrection] goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Rev 16:14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Rev 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Rev 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon G717.

We see that the names for that highly prominent and mysterious location of death, the Valley of Jehoshaphat, Jezeel, Meggido, and Armageddon, identify the same address.

Hence, and paradoxically to Babylonians, the Lord exalts his Bride for her judging herself within to die a much “lighter” ‘spiritual death’ from her lawlessness as opposed to physical Israel’s bloody death and literal exile to Babylon, symbolised by the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

Mat 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden [believing in free will and delusionally encumbered with saving yourself], and I will give you rest.
Mat 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me [that Christ is our workmanship creating us by his power and might spiritually]; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls [because Christ is building his temple within us].
Mat 11:30  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light [… indeed!]. 

In Babylon, Israel continues worshipping every false god more vigorously and unconsciously, imagining in her flesh that God, their enemy, wouldn’t utterly destroy her when belonging to a far more powerful nation than they had been in the Promised Land. What they couldn’t see in Joel 3:2 is that their coming ‘scattering among the nations’ would result from their lockstep with their real enemy, Babylon, and collectively building a great tower to beat any imagined future Noah-like flood, that more profoundly represented the entire Earth’s stubborn and petulant face against her Lord’s commandments.

Gen 11:1-9  And the whole earth [Represented by Babylon, the strongest nation representative of the entire Earth to this day!] was of one language, and of one speech [meaning, 200,000,000 lies (Rev 9:16) of their own ideologies all opposing God’s word].
Gen 11:2  And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar [H8152 country of two rivers. 1. the ancient name for the territory later known as Babylonia or Chaldea]; and they dwelt there.

In type, Israel’s physical exile and journey from her former estate in the Promised Land to Babylon, as were the sons of Noah from the “mountains of Arat” to Babylon, were from the West, and Israel even southwest of Babylon! For Israel to travel to Babylon from the East, as Gen 11:2 says, they would absurdly have come from the Indian Ocean and the mouth of the Euphrates River. Israel’s journey from the East is clearly a metaphor for her, in particular, and later, the entire world’s journey in Christ, their Sun who rises in the East with the healing of increasingly ‘burning’ righteousness in his wings into the spiritual heat of midday. Geographically and astronomically spiritually, it means that wherever we are on Earth in regards to its rotation from the West to the East, it gives the impression that the sun, meaning Christ and his Bride, rises from the East to herald the infinitely greater riches of the Heavenly Jerusalem (… don’t give up understanding that physical reality of the Earth’s rotation that gives the impression that it is the sun that revolves around the Earth). As such, and in regards to Israel still in Babylon, the figurative centre of the financial and Satan’s spiritual world, she, to the deluded world, has today risen again her tower of godship from the East to sit on the throne of God, effectively stating that she IS god! She is all prepared to enter the valley of death in Megeddo, Armageddon to be destroyed as God said would happen to anyone rebuilding old Babylon, particularly within.

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

Continuing…

Gen 11:3  And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
Gen 11:4  And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 
Gen 11:5  And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
Gen 11:6  And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language [of total opposition to His word]; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. (Rom 1:28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient)
Gen 11:7  Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
Gen 11:8  So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city [… at the beginning of the soon coming of the One Thousand Year rule with the rod of iron]. 
Gen 11:9  Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. 

That action is the audacity of a harlot standing piously on her self-righteousness, stating that she will eat her own bread and wear her own apparel (Isa 4:1. Rev 18:7. Rev 19:18) while claiming salvation even as she feels safely ‘scattered’ in Babylonian Christianity throughout the world, serving multiple representations of “another Jesus” (2 Cor 11:4). Babylon’s rule is soon to close with the outward coming of Christ and resurrection of his faithful Bride.

These two verses studied are devoted to the Lord pleading today with the joints in his Bride! She, in the spirit today, the Lord’s day, symbolically and paradoxically literally standing in the Valley of Jehoshaphat among the dry bones of her predecessors, where her Lord is graphically presenting a historical visualisation of where she, too, will die a bloody death if she doesn’t repent from her ways.

Eze 37:1  The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
Eze 37:2  And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.

The Bride is already clothed in her Lord’s white robes. Yet, within her remains a sub-remnant of unidentified tares containing schisms and rottenness to her bones (1 Cor 11:19). Our Lord has almost finished dragging those divisions out of her that collectively are called Sodom, Egypt, Tyre and Babylon, which all represent Old Jerusalem, the Great Whore, even as she, in pain, patiently laments, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.  – Rev 6:10-11.

Continuing next week in verse three of Joel Chapter three, we will, Lord willing, quietly listen intently to him as he continues to reflect upon the final dying days of our decreasing wretchedness in the glorious expectation of him winning our battle.

Jdg 18:16-31: They Smote the Inhabitants of Laish with the Edge of the Sword

[Study Aired August 23, 2021]

Jdg 18:16  And the six hundred men appointed with their weapons of war, which were of the children of Dan, stood by the entering of the gate. 
Jdg 18:17  And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war. 
Jdg 18:18  And these went into Micah’s house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, What do ye? 
Jdg 18:19  And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel? 
Jdg 18:20  And the priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people. 
Jdg 18:21  So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the carriage before them. 
Jdg 18:22  And when they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the houses near to Micah’s house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan. 
Jdg 18:23  And they cried unto the children of Dan. And they turned their faces, and said unto Micah, What aileth thee, that thou comest with such a company? 
Jdg 18:24  And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that ye say unto me, What aileth thee? 
Jdg 18:25  And the children of Dan said unto him, Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows run upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household. 
Jdg 18:26  And the children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back unto his house. 
Jdg 18:27  And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire. 
Jdg 18:28  And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein. 
Jdg 18:29  And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first. 
Jdg 18:30  And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. 
Jdg 18:31  And they set them up Micah’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. 

The last session ended when the six hundred men from the tribe of Dan who were appointed with the weapons of war entered the house of Micah.

Jdg 18:15  And they turned thitherward, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even unto the house of Micah, and saluted him.

The house of Micah represents the physical churches of this world (Babylon) which at our appointed time, we enter thinking we are serving God but we come to find out later that we were actually serving another Jesus. The six hundred men are the elect in every generation who are appointed by the Lord with weapons of war to wage war against the flesh in order to possess their inheritance. The weapons of war are the whole armor of God of which Paul told us in Ephesians chapter 6 as follows:

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

This session of the study is focused on our experience of evil appointed for us in Babylon. As the scripture makes us aware, this is to humble us so that we will take hold of the salvation offered to us through the ceasing of our own strivings.

Ecc 1:13  And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail [Experience of evil] hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised [Humbled] therewith.

Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

Jdg 18:16  And the six hundred men appointed with their weapons of war, which were of the children of Dan, stood by the entering of the gate. 

The six hundred men standing by the gate implies a time of decision as was used in the following scripture when David had to decide whether to join the army in a battle against his son Absalom’s revolt or not.

2Sa 18:2  And David sent forth a third part of the people under the hand of Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, and a third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. And the king said unto the people, I will surely go forth with you myself also.
2Sa 18:3  But the people answered, Thou shalt not go forth: for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us: but now thou art worth ten thousand of us: therefore now it is better that thou succour us out of the city.
2Sa 18:4  And the king said unto them, What seemeth you best I will do. And the king stood by the gate side, and all the people came out by hundreds and by thousands.

The six hundred men were at a point to either serve another Jesus (carry Micah’s gods along) or the living God, just like the Israelites under Joshua’s leadership when he confronted the people to decide.

Jos 24:14  Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
Jos 24:15  And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Unfortunately, they chose to have faith in Micah’s gods, or another Jesus instead of Christ. We also at a point in our lives chose to follow another Jesus while in Babylon instead of Christ.

2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

From hindsight, we now know that all our decisions, even in those times, were of the Lord.

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

If Christ is not the King sitting in the throne of our hearts, then definitely the flesh ruled over us. In this case our choices are influenced by our flesh. The next two verses show us what we go for in Babylon.

Jdg 18:17  And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.
Jdg 18:18  And these went into Micah’s house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, What do ye? 

We are represented here by the five men who took all the gods of Micah with the six hundred men in their journey to their inheritance. The number five means grace through faith. The negative aspect of this number is that we turn our Lord’s grace into lasciviousness based on our faith without works.

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

Jas 2:14  What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

Now let’s examine the items they took. These items show us what happens to us in Babylon.

Graven Image – The first item we possess in Babylon is a graven image. A graven image is a carved idol made of wood which is used as an object of worship. Since this idol is made of wood, it represents our works which we adore or worship. In Babylon, we build on the foundation of Christ with our own acts of self-righteousness which are signified spiritually by wood, hay and stubble. So the graven image represents our self-righteousness, which is iniquity.

1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation [Jesus Christ] gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 
1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

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

Ephod: The next item that the five men took was an ephod, which is a sleeveless garment worn by Jewish priests. The ephod also symbolizes our own righteousness as shown in this scripture:

Psa 132:9  Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy.

So what happens to us in Babylon is that we establish our own righteousness by wearing our own clothes.

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

Rom 10:3  For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Rom 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Teraphim: They are idols or household gods. The teraphim therefore symbolizes the idols of our hearts. In Babylon, the false doctrine that we imbibe becomes our idols of our hearts which prevent the glorious light of the gospel from reaching us.

Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; 

Molten Image: It is an idol that is molded out of a substance such as gold or silver. We know that gold or silver represents the word of God. So a molten image to us signifies the half truths of the word of God or the false doctrines we imbibe in Babylon which become our idol of the heart just like the teraphim.

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

When we leave Babylon, we carry all these idols of the hearts along.  However, God in His mercy starts to work on us to clear our heavens of all that offends. 

Jdg 18:19  And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel? 

When we were in Babylon, we reasoned just like the priest here that it is far better to minister to a tribe and family of Israel than to a house of one man. Our reason for this is that we reasoned that because Jerusalem, which is in bondage with her children (Babylon) has many people, it suggests that they must be doing something right. This was what kept us longer in Babylon because we thought that the fact that existing Jerusalem has many people believing in man’s free will, eternal punishment, trinity of God, speaking in tongues, rapture, etc. means these doctrines are true. It was when we came into the company of the first born or the Jerusalem which is above that we realized the truth that many are called not to know the truth but few are chosen to know the truth.

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

Psa 73:2  But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.

Psa 73:16  When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;

Psa 73:17  Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.

The truth of God’s word is that God has kept the church of the first born barren in this age while existing Jerusalem has many children. In the fullness of time, Jerusalem which is above, will have many children as we lead the whole of humanity to know the Lord. That is why we are admonished to rejoice in our barrenness in this life. Individually we can see that we are barren as we struggle with all kinds of challenges and weaknesses in this life. But let’s lift our heads high because this present suffering cannot be compared with the glory to be revealed.

Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

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

This truth about the existing Jerusalem having many children and the church of the first born being barren is portrayed clearly in the story of two women called Hannah and Peninnah who were married to a man called Elkanah. Their names speak a lot about their roles. The name Elkanah means God has obtained. Hannah means favored and Peninnah means contracted.

1Sa 1:1  Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:
1Sa 1:2  And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

This issue of the present Jerusalem having many children and the church of the first born being barren is continued in the next verse as follows:

Jdg 18:20  And the priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people. 

When we are ruled by the flesh, we are joyful when we minister to many people thinking that this attests to our spiritual pedigree. I’ve heard many pastors in Babylon boast of the size of their congregation and the fact that they hold about two to three services every Sunday.  Paul said that all this boasting of the flesh amounts to dung.

Php 3:4  Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Php 3:5  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Jdg 18:21  So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the carriage before them.

In Babylon, instead of experienced and matured men of God leading us, we are led by children as we see here the little ones and the cattle and the carriage going before the men searching for their inheritance. Putting the cattle before them is another way of saying that we are led by the beast within, which is our flesh or old man. This is what happens to us when children lead us:

Ecc 10:16  Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!
Ecc 10:17  Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!

‘Thy princes eat in the morning’ is another way of saying that we want all our blessings here on earth now!! This means we do not regard the joy set before us as something to die for.

Jdg 18:22  And when they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the houses near to Micah’s house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan. 
Jdg 18:23  And they cried unto the children of Dan. And they turned their faces, and said unto Micah, What aileth thee, that thou comest with such a company? 
Jdg 18:24  And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that ye say unto me, What aileth thee? 
Jdg 18:25  And the children of Dan said unto him, Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows run upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household.

These idols of the heart that we have carried along from Babylon will result in conflict within us. This is what this conflict within is about:

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

We are admonished by James to resist the devil, and he will run away from us. This applies to what is within us which is in league with the devil.

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

We are not to resist evil outside.

Mat 5:39  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 
Mat 5:40  And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
Mat 5:41  And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.

Jdg 18:26  And the children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back unto his house. 

Through the chastening grace of our Lord, we begin the daily dying process. As our old man continues to die daily and the new man continues to gain grounds in our lives, the old man, signified by Micah and those who went with him to pursue the Danites, realizes that the new man is too strong for him. This is similar to King Saul recognizing that surely King David will come and rule in his stead.

1Sa 24:16  And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.
1Sa 24:17  And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.
1Sa 24:18  And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.
1Sa 24:19  For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore the LORD reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day.
1Sa 24:20  And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand.

Jdg 18:27  And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.

The old man, represented here by the inhabitants of Laish, is defeated with the edge of the sword, which is the word of God. The sum of the word of God suggests that this defeat of the old man is accomplished daily or throughout a lifetime.

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

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

Burning the city with fire is also another way of saying that the old man within is destroyed by the word of God which is fire.

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

Deu 4:24  For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

Deu 9:3  Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.

Jdg 18:28  And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein.

As indicated in the previous review, our lives in Babylon give the Lord the occasion to come to us to destroy all that offends within us. The previous verse indicated that the people lived quietly and secure. This means that we were content and felt that we do not need anything.

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.

In verse 28, we are told that there was no deliverer to save the people of Laish. This is because our Lord forsakes us momentarily as we go through this furnace of affliction. This also means keeping at bay all those who could have come to our aid in our moment of need until our trials run their course. However, with great mercies will our Lord gather us under His wings like an eagle.

Isa 54:6  For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.
Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

The destruction of the old man is the birth of the new man. The building of a new city refers here to the birth and subsequent growth of the new man.

Jdg 18:29  And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.

The meaning of the name ‘Dan’ is Judge. The naming of the new city as Dan is therefore significant because the destruction of the old man and the birth of the new man is what will guarantee our inheritance of being judges of the world.

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

Jdg 18:30  And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. 
Jdg 18:31  And they set them up Micah’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. 

In our journey to possess our inheritance, we are prone to err as a result of the baggage of idols of the heart that we carry from Babylon. This was what happened to the children of Dan as they set up graven and molten images of that which they carried from Micah’s house. Our Lord in His wisdom has admonished us through Moses that we should not allow anything that breathes in our heavens as we seek to put to death the enemies within. The reason for this is that what is within that is not destroyed may come to hurt us in our walk with Christ and can potentially derail us from the prize of the higher calling.

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

As Paul puts it, a little leaven, leavens the whole lump.

Gal 5:7  Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
Gal 5:8  This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
Gal 5:9  A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

May the Lord help us by destroying any leaven found within our members so we can be presented as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Amen!!

The theme of generations runs throughout this book of beginnings or origins, namely Genesis. ‘Genesis’ is a Greek word for ‘generation’ or ‘origin’, and the equivalent Hebrew word ‘toledaw’ appears 13 times in Genesis alone (Gen 2:4, Gen 5:1, Gen 6:9 (2), Gen 10:1, Gen 10:32, Gen 11:10, Gen 11:27, Gen 25:12-13 (2), Gen 25:19, Gen 36:1, Gen 36:9, Gen 37:2). God also made clear distinctions between the generations which basically fall into two lines, which brings one of the main themes of all Scripture into focus:

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The generation of Cain is first to be revealed in Scripture as those who are representative of the line of the seed of the serpent (Gen 4:1-24). As every tree is known by its fruit, the same evil and subtle mind as that of the serpent in the garden of Eden is seen in the very attitude and action of Cain toward God and his own brother Abel. God openly showed His favor toward Abel for his obedience to God, and Cain did not agree with God’s choice and election:

Gen 4:3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
Gen 4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Gen 4:5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Gen 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

Those in the line of the seed of the serpent will always show animosity, disdain and rejection towards those on whom God shows His favor. God indeed has an elect, and He is working His obedience in that elect which is His prerogative and His decision (Luk 1:30, Luk 2:52, Joh 15:16, Rom 9:13). Throughout the Scripture this pattern is repeated of how God works His favor and love for ‘the younger’ or lastborn, against His rejection of the elder or firstborn (ie. Gen 6:8, Gen 37:3, Exo 3:10, Joh 15:16, Act 13:22, 1Co 15:45-47):

Rom 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
Rom 9:12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.

However, those on whom God shows this favor are placed in a position where they are a target of hatred, resentment and animosity. No one chooses this election except God, and Paul expressed so fitly his heaviness and sorrow for his rejected brothers in the flesh (Gen 37:4, Mat 10:17-39):

Rom 9:1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
Rom 9:2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
Rom 9:3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

Seth was appointed and chosen by God to typify the seed of the woman ‘instead of Abel’ (Gen 4:25-26); Within this line of Seth we see the foreshadowing of the spiritual sons of God or God’s ekklesia in the Elect One, Jesus Christ (Gen 5:1-32). The theme of the ‘sons of God’ is the central focus of all Scriptures, and this generation of Seth typifies the ekklesia as they were the first to “call upon the name of the Lord” (Gen 4:26, Mat 16:18, 1Pe 2:4-9, Eph 3:2). Through the various interactions between the generations of Seth and Cain, God’s ekklesia learns to ‘give diligence to make [their] calling and election sure’ as this election in Christ includes manifold painful trials (1Pe 4:12, 2Pe 1:10). Even within this election in Christ the principle of ‘few’ that will be faithful to the name or doctrine of Christ is applicable until the end (Mat 22:14, Luk 13:23-24, Mat 24:13, Gen 6:8-9, Rev 17:14) – for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

God uses all created things to bring these necessary trials and heresies “by which they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1Co 11:19, 2Co 11:6). God is using even the ‘men of the world’ as His ‘sword’ to approve the elected sons of God:

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

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

The generation of Cain generally typifies this “men of the world” or the “sons of men” who ‘multiply on the face of the earth’ (Psa 4:2, Ecc 3:10-21). These “men of the world” in Cain’s generation fathered sons and daughters. These daughters were fair, meaning they looked good and pleasant to the physical eye, by God’s design and purpose:

Gen 6:1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
Gen 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

This just confirms what was already revealed in the generation of Cain:

Gen 4:22 And Zillah [the one wife of Lamech, the son of Cain], she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron [representing the flesh’s beauty and strength respectively]: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah [her name means ‘beauty’ or ‘pleasantness’].

All in the first Adam are vulnerable and open to the seductions of the flesh and generally follow these naturally without question (Rev 17:1-2, Eph 2:2-3, Rom 7:15, 1Jn 2:16). This is also what happened to the physical nation of Israel who foreshadowed how God’s true spiritual elect also are seduced by lies at their appointed time (Rom 15:4, 1Co 10:11):

Deu 8:2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

One of these trials during which physical Israel failed dismally is when Balaam was used to entice them, and in that process their greed and lusts were exposed. This is the way God uses the deceitfulness of self-elevation, selfish ambitions and other lusts in the generation of Cain to ‘prove’ the sons of God. This is done to bring them to their wits’ end where they learn to always “call on the name of the Lord” and not lean on their own understanding (Psa 107, Pro 3:5):

2Pe 2:15 Which [the physical Israelites] have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.

Jud 1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core [Korah].

Rev 2:14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

The error or doctrine of Balaam came in the form of fornication that happened to physical Israel, and that is just a type of the seduction of the subtle false doctrines which also influence the sons of God at the appointed time. Even the sons of God have their time to walk according to “the course of this world” in the false doctrines of the sons of men:

Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

This is the time (which has an ‘is, was and will be’ or continual application to it) when we bring forth the giants and mighty men or men of renown in our own minds:

Gen 6:4 There were giants [Hebrew: nəp̄ilîm] in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

These giants or nephilim were also powerful enemies in the time of physical Israel who made them look like grasshoppers (Num 13:32-33, Deu 2:10-11, Amo 2:9-10). Spiritually these ‘children’ to whom we give birth after our fornications with the world are our own “imaginations of the thoughts of [our] heart”. These are the very powerful and overwhelming ‘strong holds’ and all the ‘high thing[s] that exalts [themselves]’ in our deceived hearts and minds (2Co 10:4-5). These are “the mighty men which were of old [even now in the first Adam in us], men of renown”. These make us haughty to think carnally that we can lord over other’s faith, even envying superior ‘seats’ than our own brethren in Christ (2Co 1:24, Jas 4:5, Mat 20:20-28, Pro 21:10). This is when we arrogantly point fingers to other’s fleshly state and actions and are not even aware of the sleeping evil giants waiting to be exposed in us (1Co 10:12):

Tit 3:2 To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.
Tit 3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

“Men of renown” are part of “all in the world” in our first Adam when we also simply cannot accept God’s order and His appointees, even in the physical (1Jn 2:16, Gen 4:25, Rom 13:1-8, Tit 3:1-3, Dan 4:25, 1Pe 3:1-7, 1Co 14:40). “Mighty men” and “men of renown” are linked to the ‘high places in the mountains’ of the natural pride in us (2Ch 21:11). Various challenges occurred on God-appointed and elected leadership on several occasions in the Scriptures. Moses, for example, was said to have been the meekest man “upon the face of the earth” but his election even brought opposition from his own brother and sister:

Num 12:1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Num 12:2 And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it.
Num 12:3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

Num 12:9 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed.
Num 12:10 And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.

At the appointed time, our own righteousness will be revealed to us as being spiritual leprosy and hypocrisy for which we will be judged by our High Priest (Isa 64:6). Our own giants and wickedness will correct us and our backslidings will chastise us:

Jer 2:19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

Our own natural mind will always challenge our position in Christ by pointing out our failures and shortcomings. It wants us to believe that we are not “accepted in the beloved” (Eph 1:5-6). The challenges which God’s appointees face are also revealed in the ministries of Paul and the apostles throughout the New Testament. This is also showing that all the spiritual sons of God will face the “men of renown” inwardly and outwardly all the time. Like Moses, it is always interesting that these men were the meekest men that can be found within their time of ministry, and yet they were accused of commending themselves and being boastful (Act 20:29-30, 2Co 5:12, 2Co 10:12-18, 2Ti 1:15, 2Ti 4:14-18, 3Jn 1:9-11). Meekness equals weakness for those in the line of the serpent.

2Co 10:7 Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s.
2Co 10:8 For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:
2Co 10:9 That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.
2Co 10:10 For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.
2Co 11:11 Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present.

The natural spirit of the fleshly mind always lusts to envy and makes comparisons which is not the spirit of wisdom of God, but an earthly, sensual, and devilish spirit – the spirit of the “men of the world” (Jas 4:5, 2Co 10:12). Those with the spirit and wisdom of God can see and accept how all in His body are being “fitly joined [or framed] together” sharing one mind and have no schisms (Eph 2:21, Eph 4:16, 1Co 3:3, 1Co 12:25):

Jas 3:13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
Jas 3:14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
Jas 3:15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
Jas 3:16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

‘Where there is envying and strife, there is confusion’ which causes deep and bitter torment. Confusion and death are the mental state of the old first man Adam who is not God’s ultimate or prime creation as some proclaim. The spirit man in Christ is God’s prime creation, and that is what is meant when it says in the Scripture that “it repented the LORD that he had made man” also here in Genesis 6:

Gen 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Gen 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Several times in Scripture we read that God repents, which deludes many to think that God changed His mind or that He had a rethinking about His plan of action (Gen 6:5-7, Exo 32:14, Jdg 2:14, 1Sa 15:11, 1Sa 15:35, 2Sa 24:16, Psa 106:43, Psa 106:45, Jer 26:19, Amo 7:3, Amo 7:6, Jon 3:10). God is “not a man, that he should repent”, and that is also written for our admonition as it points out how differently we should understand the concept of repentance when it applies to God (1Sa 15:29). God has perfect understanding of everything, and that also includes why He created a fleshly man and all evil things which are grieving Him all the time. Just as all evil, darkness and sin were given a temporary existence and purpose in God’s plan, so is fleshly man (Gen 1:2, Isa 45:7, Gen 50:20). Flesh is extremely evil to a holy God, and He cannot and will not accept the flesh in His spiritual kingdom (1Co 1:20, 1Co 15:50, Pro 16:4). God is in total control all the time, and He made the decision to eventually destroy all flesh before He created it (Isa 46:10). This is the same as saying that God’s spirit “shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh” (Gen 6:3). He will destroy all evil, darkness and physical things (which are all related to spiritual death) once they served His purposes.

1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Numerous false teachings are out there in the world about this relation and interaction between the sons of God and the daughters of men in Genesis 6. Although the angelic spirit beings are also called “sons of God” in Scripture, it is also important to note that these angelic beings are not “given in marriage”, meaning angelic beings cannot have sexual relationships (Job 1:6, Luk 20:34-36). So it was not angelic beings that had sexual relations with the sons of men as some falsely propagate. Only the holy spirit of the Father can bring forth new life, even in those who are ‘a chaste virgin to Christ’ (Mat 1:18-20, Luk 1:34-35, 2Co 11:2):

Rev 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Rev 14:2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Rev 14:5 And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

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[Questions and comments for the writer can be directed to: glgroenewald@gmail. com]
[Detailed studies and emails written relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the www.iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

The Fallen Angels
Do Angels Marry?
How Can God Repent but Tell us He is not a Man Who Needs to Repent?