Matthew 28:1– 20 The Resurrection 

[Study Aired December 29, 2025]

In our study today, we shall look at the testimony of the angel regarding Christ’s resurrection. The study is also about Jesus’ appearance to the women, the false report of the guards, Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in Galilee and finally, the commission He gave to the disciples. 

The Resurrection

Mat 28:1  In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.  

The time given here is to show us that Jesus was in the grave for three days as prophesied in the Book of Hosea as follows: 

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

We can see that everything about Christ, regarding His life here on earth, had been written by God in His Book. As He is, so are we. Our lives here on earth have been written before the foundation of the earth by God.

Psa 139:16  but with your own eyes you saw my body being formed. Even before I was born, you had written in your book everything I would do. (CEV)

Sometimes in our walk with Christ, we become confused and disillusioned as to what is happening to us. We wonder if we are going to make it to the first resurrection. Verse 1, which tells us about the time of Christ’s resurrection, therefore gives us the confidence that what God has started with us, He is able to bring to an expected end. He will not let us see corruption.

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: 

Psa 16:10  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 
Psa 16:11  Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. 

Therefore, let’s not throw away our confidence, which will bring us the great reward of ruling over the kingdoms of this world and the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. 

Heb 10:35  Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. 
Heb 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 
Heb 10:37  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Heb 10:38  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 
Heb 10:39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Our problem is that we worry about many things. This is what Jesus told Martha when Jesus went to Bethany to raise Lazarus from death. 

Luk 10:41  And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: 
Luk 10:42  But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. 

The antidote to worrying is that we turn our focus from the raging storm around us and focus on Christ, that is, to believe in Him. 

Joh 14:1  Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 

It is instructive to note that here in verse 1, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulcher where Jesus was buried. These women represent the church of the Lord’s elect. What this implies is that the role of the church is to support us as we go through the dying of our flesh or our old man. The fact that there were two women means the truth that the church must be supportive of us as we go through the dying of our flesh is an established fact.    

2Co 13:1  This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.  

In 1 Corinthians 12:26, the Lord uses the metaphor of a body to illustrate that if one part suffers, every part suffers with it, emphasizing the church’s shared experience and concern for each other as we die to the flesh.

1Co 12:26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

Mat 28:2  And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. 
Mat 28:3  His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: 
Mat 28:4  And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. 

Prior to these verses, the chief priests and the Pharisees, inspired by the devil, had conspired to keep Jesus in the grave by forcing Pilate to post soldiers at the tomb. This is all to show us that what the Lord has planned for us shall not be derailed by the forces of hell. 

Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

Isaiah 14:27 “For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”

Verses 2 to 4 relates to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. All that happened – the great earthquake, the angel descending from heaven, the rolling back the stone from the door, the angel’s countenance becoming like lightning and his raiment as white as snow, and the guards becoming like dead men, are all to show us the power of the Lord’s resurrection. This is the same power the Lord avails to us when He visits us in our spiritually dead state, to lift us up to become alive in Him.

Isa 29:6  Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. 

The power behind the raising of the Lord Jesus from death is what sets us free from our prison of sin. That is why it is important to experience the power of His resurrection in our lives.

Act 16:26  And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.   

Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 
Php 3:11  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 

It is worth noting that the angel’s raiment was as white as snow. During the transfiguration, Jesus’ raiment was as white as snow. 

Mat 17:1  And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, 
Mat 17:2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. 

On a positive note, the Bible shows us that although our sins be as scarlet, when Christ comes to us, our sins shall be as white as snow. In other words, when we are raised from death to sit with Christ in heavenly places, we shall put on Christ’s righteousness.

Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 

Because of the fear of the angel, the guards became like dead men. Dead men in the Bible signify all those who are not given eyes to see and ears to hear the mysteries of the kingdom of God. These guards therefore represent our brothers and sisters who see the physical resurrection of our Lord Jesus but are not given to know the power of His resurrection in their lives.   

Isa 59:10  We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.

Mat 28:5  And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
Mat 28:6  He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 
Mat 28:7  And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. 
Mat 28:8  And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

It is the church of the Lord’s elect, symbolized by the women, who were given to know about the Lord’s resurrection. That is why when Jesus was resurrected, He did not show Himself to the Chief priests, Pharisees and Sadducees. Rather, it was the church in Jesus’ day that met the resurrected Jesus in Galilee. It is important to note that it was in Galilee that Jesus was to meet the disciples. Galilee in the Old Testament and in Jesus’ time was referred to as Galilee of the Gentiles. In other words, although Galilee was a Jewish city, there were many Gentiles living there, hence the name, Galilee of the Gentiles. 

Mat 4:15  The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; 

Isa 9:1  Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.  

Jesus meeting the disciples in Galilee after His resurrection is therefore to show us spiritually that His death and resurrection was for the whole world and not just the prerogative of the physical Jews. 

Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 
Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 
Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 
Eph 2:16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

In verse 8, the women left the sepulchre with fear and great joy as they ran to bring the good news of Christ’s resurrection to His disciples. As we know, the women represent the church of the Lord’s elect, and it is the church which is to make known to the body the fellowship of the Lord’s suffering and the power of His resurrection. 

Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 
Php 3:11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.     

The women departing with fear and with great joy was because of the message they had received from the angel. The fear here is the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. 

Pro 9:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. 

It is the word of the Lord which brings joy and comfort to our soul as we are refreshed by what every joint supplies. 

Phm 1:7  For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. 

Mat 28:9  And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.
Mat 28:10  Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” 

The women taking hold of Jesus’ feet when He appeared to them signify the church of the Lord’s elect’s profound respect, humility, and worship as it acknowledges the Lord’s divine authority. As the bride of Christ, we must submit to Him in all things.

Eph 5:24  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 

One of the tools used by the devil against us is to cause us to be afraid or to fear the unknown. Today, the Lord is telling us not to be afraid of whatever circumstance in which we find ourselves. This is because the Lord is in control of everything as all authority has been given to Him after His resurrection. 

Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  

The Lord’s instruction to the church, represented by the women, was that they should meet Him in Galilee. At every point in time, the Lord has predestinated us to be at certain places, and it is these places that when we seek Him, we shall find Him, although He is not far from us. 

Act 17:26  And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 
Act 17:27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 

The Report of the Guard

Mat 28:11  Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. 
Mat 28:12  And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,
Mat 28:13  Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. 
Mat 28:14  And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. 
Mat 28:15  So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. 

The chief priests here signify the leaders of the church system of this world. In the Bible, a city stands for a church, either positively or negatively. The elders represent the political leaders who are in league with the church system of this world.  

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

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels.

The guards who came to the city represent us when the Lord first came into our lives. We were very willing to share the resurrection power of the Lord in our lives with the leaders of the church system of our day. However, the church system offered us the false doctrine of prosperity as signified by the money the chief priests gave to the guards. This is because the church system is in league with the government and are not interested in the truth, as we see the chief priests consulting with the elders or the kings of the earth.

Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. 

In verse 13, the chief priests came up with falsehood by telling the guards to say that Jesus’ body was stolen in the night by His disciples, which the guards accepted because of the money they had received. This is a clear example of the false doctrine spewed by the devil, which the church system of this world accepts. 

Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 
Rev 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 

We can conclude from this incident that the church system of this world or Babylon does not love the truth. This is because the minds of our brothers and sisters in Babylon have been polluted with false doctrines propagated by the devil and his messengers. We were filled with false doctrines at a certain stage of our walk with Christ, which prevented us from knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection.

2Co 11:12  And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. 
2Co 11:13  For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 
2Co 11:14  And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 
2Co 11:15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. 

The second thing we can conclude from this story with the guards is that the church system of this world spews false doctrines which clouds the minds of people who have begun their journey with Christ.

2Co 4:3  But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 
2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 

Thirdly, most of the preachers of Babylon are motivated by the love of money which is the root of all evil. 

1Ti 6:9  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 
1Ti 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

The Call to Teach all Nations

Mat 28:16  Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 
Mat 28:17  And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. 
Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 

As we have learned from previous studies, a mountain on a positive note represents the assembly of the Lord’s elect as shown in the following verses:

Isa 2:2  And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 
Isa 2:3  And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Isa 56:7  Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. 

Therefore, the Lord wanting to meet the eleven disciples on a mountain in Galilee is another way of saying that where two or three people are gathered together in His name, He is there with them. This implies that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as He speaks to us through what every joint supplies. 

Heb 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 
Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 
Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 
Heb 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: 

It is instructive to note that among the eleven disciples who met Jesus in Galilee, some of them doubted. This implies that in our gathering, we are not of the same level of faith. However, we all have the same mind of seeking to know the Lord. 

Psa 122:9  Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good. 

Jesus proclaiming that all power is given unto Him in heaven and in earth is not to make us see how powerful He is. It is to make us aware that He is making this power available to us, His elect, to bring us to an expected end as His brothers. Verse 18 is the same as what is spoken in John 3:35 as follows:

Joh 3:35  The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.  

All of these verses show us the Lord’s intention and powerful ability to fulfill His purpose concerning His elect, in this age, and the rest of the world later. It entails working through our trials to bring about His ultimate plan of uniting all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. 

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

2Pe 1:3   According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 

Eph 3:20  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 
Eph 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. 

Mat 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 
Mat 28:20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. 

Here in verse 19, Jesus is admonishing us to go and teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To be able to understand verse 19, we need to know what the sum of the Lord’s words says about discipling people of the nations. This is because many have used this Bible verse to spend their resources to go to the nations preaching to people who do not even have a clue as to who Jesus is.

Psa 119:160  The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever. (ESV)

Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman gives us a clue of what we are to do. 

Mat 15:22  And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” 
Mat 15:23  But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”
Mat 15:24  He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 
Mat 15:25  But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 
Mat 15:26 And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 

As Jesus is, so are we. Our mission is to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The lost sheep of the house of Israel are God’s people who have gone astray and are scattered in the nations of this world. We are to preach to our brothers and sisters in Babylon who are deceived, when given the opportunity. If we look at Paul’s ministry in the Book of Acts, he was ministering mostly to the Jews scattered in the nations. 

Act 17:1  Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 
Act 17:2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,   

Apostle Peter puts our responsibility to preach the gospel to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, this way:

1Pe 3:15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
1Pe 3:16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 

According to verse 19, if our hearers respond to our message of Christ, we are to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Christ’s words are spirit, and therefore this does not mean that we have to physically baptize them in water. According to Acts 1:4-5, we are to baptize them in the Holy Spirit and with fire. 

Act 1:4  And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 
Act 1:5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.  

Luk 3:16  John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: 

Baptizing them with the Holy Ghost means helping them to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. This entails opening their eyes to understand the word of the Lord in the spirit. Baptizing them with fire means making them to understand that it is through our suffering that we learn righteousness.

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 
1Pe 4:2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 

Verse 20 makes it clear that our role is to disciple those whom the Lord makes available to us to talk to. We are to teach them to become obedient children of the Lord. In His words to the disciples, Jesus told them that He is with them always, even to the end of the world. This calls for us to fight the good fight of faith knowing that we are not alone in this fight.

Jos 1:9  Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. 

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Glory be to God. Amen!!

The Spiritual Significance of the Holy Days, Part 5A

Trumpets

[Study Aired September 7, 2025]

Lev 23:23  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 23:24  Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
Lev 23:25  Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

This feast has less said about it here in Leviticus 23 than any of the seven festivals. There are no instructions concerning the offerings to be offered, and no particular event is being celebrated, as with the Passover and the days of unleavened bread. There is no counting of the weeks leading up to this festival, but it is worthy of our notice that there is a rather long period of time between the feast of Pentecost and the Day of Trumpets. The only instruction found in these three verses is “Ye… shall… have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.”

It is interesting to note that trumpets being blown “for a memorial” is mentioned in one other place:

Num 10:10  Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God.

Numbers 29 gives us many more instructions concerning this “memorial of blowing of trumpets”:

Num 29:1  And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you.
Num 29:2  And ye shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet savour unto the LORD; one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year without blemish:
Num 29:3  And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals for a bullock, and two tenth deals for a ram,
Num 29:4  And one tenth deal for one lamb, throughout the seven lambs:
Num 29:5  And one kid of the goats for a sin offering, to make an atonement for you:
Num 29:6  Beside the burnt offering of the month, and his meat offering, and the daily burnt offering, and his meat offering, and their drink offerings, according unto their manner, for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD.

The feast of trumpets

The events which lead up to the rulership of “this world” by the elect of God are pictured within and without by the feast of trumpets on the first day of the seventh month, in the Fall.

Inwardly, this feast signifies that part of our lives when we realize that the kingdoms of this world within us have been subdued to our Lord and His Christ. At this point we realize that the sins and passions that once had free reign no longer dominate us. Christ has taken His rightful place on the throne of our heart and mind. We still have the day of atonement and the feast of tabernacles and the last great day ahead of us, but the seventh trumpet assures us that we are being judged in this present time, and that places us in “earnest”, downpayment form in that blessed and holy first resurrection.

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

Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Lev 23:23 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
Lev 23:25 Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

We do no work on the holy days in acknowledgment that we are His workmanship and that Christ in us has labored to enter into His rest, and we of ourselves can do nothing:

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

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

“Which God has ordained that we should walk in them” is the same as saying “the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

Heb 4:3  For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished [“before ordained”] from the foundation of the world.

Every holy day symbolizes a great work of God within each of us. Outwardly and dispensationally these holy days symbolize a step forward in the plan of God for all men, and yet every holy day is a sabbath because God wants us to know that He is working all things after the counsel of His own plan, purpose, and will, and not because of anything that we do:

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

Every step of God’s plan for mankind is to be taken only with “a sacrifice made with fire unto the Lord.” The fire of God’s chastening and scourging does indeed entail torment, but it is a ‘fire’ which burns up and consumes all that can be destroyed by that fire.

Rev 14:6  And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. [What is all of this???]
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

That which is not consumed and destroyed is purified in that tormenting fire. The torment, like the fire itself, has a purpose and an end, and that purpose and end is the cleansing and purifying of “every man.” ‘Every man… shall suffer [the] loss” of all the wood, hay and stubble, in his life, “but he himself shall [in the end] be saved, yet so as by fire.”

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.

Joseph is a type of Christ, our judge, and the way he dealt with his brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt, demonstrates how the fire of the Word of God works in our own lives. It demonstrates how we are judged by the Words of our own mouth and how we reap what we have sown:

Gen 42:21 And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
Gen 42:22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
Gen 42:23 And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
Gen 42:24 And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.

It is an emotional thing to have to witness our own brothers and sisters being brought to true and deep repentance through the torment which their own words bring upon them. We, too, must endure this very same “godly repentance” in our own lives before we will be granted to cause our brothers and sisters to be brought to that same place and time in their lives. It takes a symbolic “Seven trumpets” of God’s judgments upon the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of our old man, to drag us to deep heartfelt repentance. Joseph could easily have said, “Hi boys, it’s me, Joseph, your little brother who you sold into slavery. Hey, don’t worry about anything. I have died for you in a sense by spending thirteen years as a slave in Egypt, and now all you have to do is to accept my generous sacrifice for all you did to me.” However, that is not what Joseph did, that is not what Christ did for you and me, and that is not what we will do for those in the lake of fire. The false doctrine of ‘substitutionary atonement’ is a lie which comes straight out of the smoke and the locusts which ascend out of the abussos, “the bottomless pit” of our carnal minds. The “smooth” words of that deceitful false doctrine (Isa 30:10) deny the need for seven trumpets to effectuate the destruction of the giants in our land (Jos 6). ‘Substitutionary atonement’ is robbing millions of any hope of being saved in this present time. It is a lie of the devil and must be revealed as such. That fire which saves us is the word of God, and this is what that word teaches us about who we are and what we will do:

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;

Luk 19:22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

That is exactly what Joseph’s brothers thought of Him. In their own carnal mind they knew that it was just a matter of time before Joseph would seek his revenge against them, and that carnal reasoning tormented them for many long years. They really believed that when their father, Jacob, died, Joseph would get his revenge upon them all for what they had done to him:

Gen 50:15 And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.

It was their own unforgiving heart that caused them to suffer in fear all those years, and so the scriptures were fulfilled which said:

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

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.

Contrary to the smooth teaching of the false doctrine of “the substitutionary death of Christ”, Christ is not in the process of saving us with “coffee and doughnuts.” Rather we are plainly told “he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.” It is much easier to be forgiven and at the same time refuse to forgive those who have trespassed and sinned against us. It would also have been much easier for Joseph to have revealed himself to his brothers to begin with than for him to have restrained himself from doing so while he tormented them as he did. Nevertheless, these things happened to them, and they are written for our admonition upon whom these very same “ends of the world have come.” That is right, these events are the events that come upon us all in “the ends of the age”, both inwardly and outwardly and dispensationally.

As the apostle warned us, and as our Lord Himself taught us, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap [by] the tormentors… till the debt is paid.”

Mat 18:32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
Mat 18:33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Mat 18:34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
Mat 18:35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

All of these lessons are learned first by those who are pictured as the firstfruits of the feast of Pentecost. The holy days build on each other. The chastening grace through faith of Pentecost is being tried:

1Pe 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1Pe 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

The appearing of Jesus Christ will be at “the [signified] seventh trump” for all of His elect:

1Th 4:13  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
1Th 4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
1Th 4:15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1Th 4:18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Earlier Paul had called this “the last trump”:

1Co 15:51  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Revelation symbolically calls this the trumpet of “the seventh angel.”

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded [his trumpet]; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Rev 11:16  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

These trials which the grace of Pentecost and the seven, sevens that bring us to Pentecost prepares us for the judgments of the seven trumpets which are what this feast signifies.

From Pentecost to the feast of trumpets is roughly 120 days, the time from the summer to the fall. It is during this extended time that we are being matured through fiery judgments which “begin at the house of God.” Those fiery words apply to us first, and we are the first to be judged out of our own mouths, according to the idols of our own hearts” (Eze 14:1-9).

Outwardly even the scholars of Babylon agree that this long period of four months signifies the entire church age, from Christ’s death and resurrection until the day of His appearing and the establishing of His kingdom over the kingdoms of this world. It is during this extended period of time that the house of God is being judged and being gathered together to become the manchild who will rule the nations with a rod of iron for a thousand years:

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

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed [the first man Adam, the beast, the man of sin within all of us], whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

“That wicked… shall [be] consume[d] with the spirit of His mouth.” In other words, “that wicked” is consumed by the fiery words of Christ in the mouths of His firstfruit witnesses.

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

“The feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest” is the feast of Pentecost, and “the feast of ingathering at the year’s end” is the double festival of tabernacles and the last great day. Between those two festivals is this feast of blowing of trumpets and the day of atonement.

This festival, “the blowing of trumpets” is only nine days before the day of atonement, indicating that these two festivals are closely associated with each other. We are even told that “a sin offering [of] atonement” is offered to the Lord at the feast of trumpets:

Num 29:1  And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month [the day of Trumpets], ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you.

Num 29:5  And one kid of the goats for a sin offering, to make an atonement for you:

That association signifies that our sins cannot be covered without first drinking the cup Christ drank and being baptized with the baptism He was baptized with, which are both typified by the trumpet judgments of Revelation 16 within our lives. This judgment is even now taking place within the lives of those who are “the house of God” and are acknowledged as such at the feast of trumpets:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

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

We will pause our study at this point and finish our examination of the spiritual significance of the day of the blowing of trumpets in our next study. In that study we will see how the seven trumpets which were blown for seven days were also blown by seven priests. Those trumpets culminated in “the last trump” on the last day which brought down the walls of Jericho. That was not the end of Israel’s work to overcome the giants in the land. It was only the beginning, and there is great significance “for our admonition” in the account of the destruction of the walls of Jericho by the seven trumpets being blown by seven priests.

Jos 6:1  Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.
Jos 6:2  And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.
Jos 6:3  And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.
Jos 6:4  And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.

[Here is a link to the next study in this series.]

Rev 22:16-21 If Any Man Add to or Take Away, Part 1

 [Study Aired August 17, 2025]

Rev 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Rev 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Rev 22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Introduction

It is by divine design that this book of the revelation of Jesus Christ opens with the instructions to “keep the things which are written therein…” closes with the same message, “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”

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

Rev 22:6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
Rev 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

Both emphasize the imminent and present nature of this prophecy. It was never intended to be taken only as a dispensational prophecy. This book of the revelation of Jesus Christ is just Matthew 24 with many more details provided. It was always meant to be understood that “this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled” in every generation which ‘reads and understands’ the need for “keeping the things written therein.”

Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

Mat 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

“Who reads, let him understand” tells us that the Word of God is to be understood only by a ‘few’…

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

…How very few believe we are intended to keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book? Here is what Christ says in answer to that question:

Luk 17:26  And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
Luk 17:27  They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:28  Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
Luk 17:29  But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:30  Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

Very few were on that ark. Then one verse later He also adds this admonition:

Luk 17:28  Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

Finally, knowing that mankind would claim they were “saving the world for Christ” He asks this sobering question of us:

Luk 18:8  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Having emphasized the ‘is, was, and will be’ nature of the Lord’s words, we must be very careful to avoid the spirit of Hymenaeus and Philetus who taught that since God’s words are to be understood spiritually that therefore “the resurrection is past already” because we are ‘crucified with Christ daily and are raised up with Christ in newness of His life:

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Does the fact that we are spiritually given “the earnest of our inheritance” in the form  of a promise mean that that is all there is to that promise? Absolutely Not!!! The promise of a spiritual inheritance is not actual inheritance. It is merely a foretaste of what is to come:

Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

The gift of the holy spirit is but the foretaste, the “promise” of becoming priests and kings to rule over the kingdoms of this world for one thousand years with Christ, before judging angels in the lake of fire. We are in this age hoping for that “until the redemption of the purchased possession” at “the first resurrection”:

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

Does that sound like “the resurrection is past already”??? I think not! That sounds more like we have been given the holy spirit of promise of a yet to come “first resurrection” which we are told will take place just before the beginning of that promised thousand-year reign. Our salvation hinges upon our faith and our hope in that promise:

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

That is why Paul prefaces the lies of Hymenaeus and Philetus with this admonition:

2Ti 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2Ti 2:16  But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
2Ti 2:17  And their word [words of profane and vain babblings] will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 2:18  Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already [everything is spiritual and present]; and overthrow the faith of some.
2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

If “the resurrection is past already” and our “earnest of the spirit” is all there will ever be and is already here, then there is no future “first resurrection” at the beginning of a thousand-year reign of Christ and His Christ over the nations of this world. Yes, indeed, the “thousand years” merely “signifies” the time of the reign of Christ and His Christ with that thinking, but it actually signifies the time of their reigning over “the kingdoms of this world.” It does not signify the downpayment, “the earnest” of that kingdom which is within us in “this present time”. If that is what the promise of a thousand years of reigning with Christ meant then this statement by Paul is meaningless:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. [At that “blessed and holy… first resurrection”]

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them [the saints of “this present time”, (Rom 8:18)], and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands [during “this present time”, (Rom 8:18)]; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

If “the resurrection is past already, then there is no restraining of Satan in the abussos for a thousand years. If “the resurrection is past already”, then there is no rebellion of the nations in the four quarters of the earth, no “encompassing about” of the camp of the saints, no fire coming down from God out of heaven which destroys the nations in the four quarters of the earth. If there is no fire which comes down from God out of heaven after the rebellion of the nations against “the camp of the saints” then “the nations in the four quarters of the earth” are never destroyed and flesh and blood babies continue to be produced and death will never be destroyed. What actually happens?

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

There is a great white throne judgment, and it takes place immediately after Satan’s rebellion is put down by the destruction of the nations in the four quarters of the earth. None of this 20^th chapter of Revelation will ever take place according to the false, “the resurrection is past already” doctrine of Hymenaeus and Philetus, known today as ‘the doctrine of amillennialism’.

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life [judgment is now on those whose names are in the book of life, 1Pe 4:17]: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life [Anyone who was not given a part in the blessed and holy first resurrection] was cast into the lake of fire.

Fortunately for all of us, Hymenaeus and Philetus are false prophets and the crucifixion and resurrection with Christ, and our being seated with Him in the heavens is all in earnest form only at this time, and “the redemption of the purchased possession” is still the “hope of our salvation” which is yet to come.

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Is it really true that the person who keeps the things written in this prophecy is blessed? If that is so, then just how much of what is written in this prophecy must be kept? Are the conditions afflicting the seven churches of chapters two and three, part of our blessed experience? Only two of the seven are not reprimanded and admonished for very serious sins. Nevertheless we are told:

Rev 2:29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto [all] the churches.

Are all seven addresses for each of us, or are the kind words for the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia the only words for you and me? Do the first four horses of the first four seals have any personal application for each of us? The first is the white horse who comes conquering and to conquer. The second is the red horse which takes peace from the earth causing its inhabitants to kill one another. The third is the black horse, which makes the oil and the wine in short supply. Do the souls under the altar of the fifth seal or the great earthquake of the sixth seal play any part in our lives? We are told that everything that happened in the Old Testament “happened to them… for our admonition”. That includes all of Job’s tribulations:

Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

When we deny that we are to keep any part of the things written therein, we are doing nothing less than “contending with the Almighty.” When we deny any qualification of scripture, we are contending with God. In other words, if we deny that “He that overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death”, then we are contending with God.

Today’s verses have a very stern warning concerning this Truth.

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

What does “I Jesus have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches” mean? We have seen that Christ’s angel is His own body. His ‘angel’ is all those who in every generation since His resurrection “have the testimony of Jesus Christ”, and that ‘testimony’ declares that these things are “in the churches”, just as chapters 2-3 demonstrate. This entire revelation of Jesus Christ is addressed “to the seven churches”, which is just Bible-speak for all churches of all time.

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

Rev 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him [Christ’s angel]. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. [1Co 14:3]

Christ, the Father’s anointed, has sent His Christ, His anointed, as His angel to testify these things in the churches. In this prophecy, John is the figure of all of us, if we are indeed his “fellowservants and of his brothers who have the testimony of Jesus.”

Luk 22:29 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;

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

Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

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

Rev 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

One of “these things” is a Truth which is very little understood by even those who profess to know Christ. That Truth is the fact that while Christ was indeed conceived in the womb of His mother Mary by the holy spirit, He was still, by virtue of being “made of a woman, made under the law”, at the same time both “the root and the offspring of David.”

In the natural realm it is not possible to be both the ‘root’ and the ‘offspring’ of anyone, yet Christ claims to be both the root of David, as well as the offspring of King David. He goes even further by claiming to be both the first and the last, the beginning and the end. This seems to be contrary to all that Babylon teaches, simply because, in effect, it is saying that Christ creates the evil as well as the good. How can that possibly be? Here is the answer to that question for all who are given to accept it:

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

Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and [I] create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Rev 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

Rev 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

The beginning and end of what? The first and the last of what? Here is that of which Christ is both the first and last, the beginning and the end.

1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Is the first Adam really ‘of Christ’? What do the scriptures say?

Luk 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

Are both the first and the last Adam really sons of God? How is that possible? The Biblical answer to that question is, yes, Christ is both the first and the last, and both are “in Him.”

Speaking to pagan Athenians, Paul makes this revealing statement:

Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Act 17:29 Forasmuch then as we [including these Pagan Athenians] are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.

Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Christ is truly “the beginning and the end, the first and the last”.

At the end of this verse, Christ informs us that He is also “the bright and morning star.” The bright and morning star is the reward which is promised to all overcomers. What greater gift can be given? Christ gives us Himself, just as His Father gave His spirit to Christ.

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

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

All things Christ has are ours. “Only in the throne” is His Father greater than Christ.

Gen 41:40  Thou [Joseph] shalt be over my [Pharaoh’s] house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.

Christ in turn is greater than we are in Him, and we too, are given to rule all ‘Egypt’ within us simply because we are being given “the Bright and Morning Star”!

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

Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

“The bride” and “him that hears” and “he that is athirst” are all one and the same, who are all granted to “take of the water of life freely” in this present time. All men of all time will come to God through the mercy they will receive from Christ’s bride.

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

All men of all time will be made to know God “by the church… the bride, the Lamb’s wife… the mother of all living.”  It is “by the church” that the manifold wisdom of God is being revealed to all men, both in this age and in the eons to come.

Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Eph 3:11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

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

Rev 21:12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

Rev 21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments [in this present time], that they may have right [G1849: ‘exousia’, power, authority] to the tree of life [Be “the first to trust in Christ and be given to give life to others, (Eph 1:11-12)], and may enter in through the gates into the city.

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam developed into a living soul. The last Adam a life giving spirit.(ACV)

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

The Lord’s bride is “the first” to trust in him. She is now poised too as “a life giving spirit” (1Co 15:45) to “bring forth much fruit” (Joh 12:24, Joh 15:2-8) and become “the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20).

“All men… by the church” means all men will come to Christ through those who are granted to enter through the gates of that city and become “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” The gates, the pearls, the angels, and the holy city New Jerusalem, are, one and all, symbols of the same great spiritual revelation of Jerusalem above, those who are to be His bride, “the holy Jerusalem.” It is given to us, if we are granted to be that virgin bride, to be the channel through which God will save all men. Here is what it means to be “a pillar in the temple of our God.” Here is what it means to be “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”

Exo 26:30 And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.
Exo 26:31 And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made:
Exo 26:32 And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver.
Exo 26:33 And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.
Exo 26:34 And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.
Exo 26:35 And thou shalt set the table without the vail, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south: and thou shalt put the table on the north side.
Exo 26:36 And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.
Exo 26:37 And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.

To be “made a pillar in the temple of my God” is to be made the very instrument through which all men will be brought to God.

That “eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ” is this revelation of Jesus Christ within “all men… each in his own order” (1Co 15:23).

Now let all those who would be those pillars, gates, pearls, and angels, through whom all men of all time will be brought to Christ; take careful note of how this revelation of Jesus Christ closes with this solemn warning:

Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Rev 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

We will pause our study at this point and consider the consequences of this stern warning in our next study.

Rev 14:14-20 Part 3, The Angel Thrust In His Sickle Into The Earth

[Study Aired February 28, 2025]

Rev 14:14  And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
Rev 14:15  And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
Rev 14:16  And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
Rev 14:17  And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
Rev 14:18  And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
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.

We paused our last study while in the midst of demonstrating that the angels who Christ said He would send to reap the earth are, in the final analysis, those who are given to have a part in the blessed and holy first resurrection. It is the Lord’s elect firstfruits who are called ‘angels’ in the book of Revelation. These ‘angels’ themselves tell us that they are our “fellow servants and those who keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book”. In other words these angels which show us these things are the Lord’s 144,000 elect who will rule with Him a thousand years before judging another class of angels in the lake of fire. Here are the verses with which we closed our last study:

Mat 13:39  The enemy that sowed them is the devil [via his ministers with two horns like a Lamb, but speaking as a dragon]; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him [the angel]. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Rev 21:17  And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

Rev 22:8  And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9  Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

The angels to the seven churches are obviously those Godly men who the Lord sends to minister to His church. They are also the “seven angels who have the seven last plagues and who twice tell us that they are our our brothers…”

We have demonstrated with many scriptures that “God dwells in you”, that He “dwells in the heavens”, and “He dwells in His people”, all signifying us as His resting place and His temple:

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

Psa 103:19  The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

Psa 115:3  But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

Psa 123:1 <A Song of degrees.> Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

Psa 132:13  For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.
Psa 132:14  This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.

“God dwells in you… God dwells in the heavens” which Christ tells us is within us. God must perform the miracle of blinding our spiritual eyes to keep us from seeing that the heavens in which He dwells are within His people.

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

This angel that “gathers the vine of the earth” with the very same sharp sickle that Christ uses is Christ’s Christ. We are His team and His team is also known as “the Lord and His Christ”,

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

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

One of Christ’s many titles is “the mighty God”.

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

And so once again we see this same team which will “harvest the clusters of the earth”, demonstrating the strength and kingdom of ‘our God and His Christ’ in this verse:

Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

So “the Son of Man” sends three angels to harvest us, as His firstfruits first (Rev 14: 6-13), and He “torments [us] with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb”, and we are told what all of the messages of these three angels and our judgment in fire and brimstone is:

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

The wrath of God judges us and produces “the patience of the saints… and the faith of Jesus”. This is the same wrath of God, which we will later be referred to as “the seven last plagues” of the seven angels of Rev 15:1 which “fill up the wrath of God”.

‘The vision of Revelation 7 and the vision of Revelation 14, as we have demonstrated, is one.’ (Gen 41):

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

Gen 41:25  And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

Both chapters reveal the two separate judgments Christ spoke of in:

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920 krisis: judgment].

The first judgment by the first three angels which produces the patience of the saints and the faith of Jesus signifies the judgment of the 144,000 firstfruits unto God and the Lamb who will rule with Him over the nations of this world for 1,000 years, and who will continue to “judge angels” in the lake of fire. That second judgment is the great white throne judgement, signified by “her grapes are fully ripe”. While this is not an overt statement it is a signified statement that this is the final harvest of the earth because any farmer who has grapes on his farm knows that the very last thing to ripen are grapes.

The visions of Revelation 7 and Revelation 14 are one vision which is concerned with two resurrections. There are only two resurrections mentioned in scripture and those two resurrections are separated by a symbolic “thousand years”. “The vision is one” does not mean that it all happens at the same time. There is an order in which the one vision must take place, and in the case of the story of Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream, the seven good and fat years must necessarily precede the seven bad and lean years. In the case of these two chapters dealing with the same two judgments, the “blessed and holy first resurrection” necessarily precedes the great white throne judgment by a thousand years plus a “short season” of rebellion against “the camp of the saints”.

The dragon is “that old serpent called the devil, and Satan”, and while our old man rules in our lives we are all first his children and his angels who wage war against our Lord, as the inward armies of the carnal mind of our old man. This is called “war in the heavens” (Rev 12:7) where, as the children of “our father the devil”, we withstand “the Son of Man” when He comes to harvest us and to separate the Truths of His Word in us, from all the lying false doctrine and ‘tares’ of Babylon which are first within us. This has all been revealed to us earlier in chapter 12:

Rev 12:7  And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
Rev 12:8  And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

In the process of this war, our old man is tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.  This torment is the process of our judgment which is signified by the first three angels of Revelation 14 which distinguishes our judgment from that of the second three angels who are gathering the clusters of grapes. It is the fact that ‘grapes’ are not mentioned in the judgment of the first three angels and the fact that this verse does not appear in the judgment of the second three angels which makes clear that these are two separate judgments. Here is what is missing in the second judgment:

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here [being tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb] is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

“The dead in Christ” are not mentioned in this second judgment of three angels. There is no mention of “the patience of the saints… they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”. The fact that this is all “without the city” (Rev 14:20) tells us that this all, both spiritually and dispensationally, takes place outside the New Jerusalem which ‘New Jerusalem’ signifies the Lord’s firstfruit elect.

The city of our God, and the temple of our God is in the kingdom of our God, and the “salvation, strength, and kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ” (Rev 12:10) cannot begin to be entered into until the seven plagues of the seven angels begin to be fulfilled within us. This “hour of the judgment of our God” upon all the sins of our flesh accompanies the displacing of the lies of Babylon within us. That time of struggle which we all experience as we struggle to see through those lies is signified by “the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall begin to sound” (Rev 10:7).

What is the Biblical significance of 1600 furlongs? 16 is two times 8. Two is the number which signifies the witness we bear for our Lord while in these vessels of clay, as well as the witness we bear as we judge all those who are cast into the lake of fire. “The 8th is of the seven” signifies the beast that “is not and yet is within each of us [“I am crudified with Christ nevertheless I live”, Gal 2:20]. This eighth beast “goes into perdition” while being the seventh beast and even though he is becoming a new man, he is still in a vessel of clay, or flesh, which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and must therefore “go into perdition”.

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure [“Jesus Christ”, vrs 6] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Rev 17:11  And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

Here is what ‘was and is not’ means:

Rom 7:9  For I was alive [thought at that time that I was alive] without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

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

Here now is how this second judgment of the second three angels concludes:

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.

But what does this number is 1600 signify? 1600 is 2 times 8 times 100, and 100 is a multiple of 10, which signifies the perfection and full blossom of the self-righteous corruption in our flesh. The number 10 signifies the perfection of corruptible flesh which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, even if it is the flesh of Jesus Christ.

https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/numbers_ten/

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

Here now are these same verses of Rev 14:14-20, repeated in Rev 19:

Rev 19:11  And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
Rev 19:12  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; [He has spent the past thousand years ruling ‘the kingdoms of this world’, Rev 11:15] and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. [This is the Son of Man with the sharp sickle and a golden crown upon His head]
Rev 19:13  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. [ This is “My blood in the New Testament”, Luk 22:20 and 1Co 11:25. This ‘blood that comes to the horses bridle’ in this ‘grape harvest’ signifies the final harvest at the great white throne judgment]
Rev 19:14  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. [these ‘armies… clothed in white linen” are the Lord’s Christ, who He sends to reap ‘the clusters of the earth’s grapes’, the last crop to ripen, and places them in ‘the winepress of His wrath’]
Rev 19:15  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God [the exact same “winepress of the wrath of God” of Rev 14:19].

This ‘sharp sword’ is signified as “a sharp sickle with which to harvest the earth in the great white throne judgment”, just as He is using His Word to reap us in “this present time”, [Rom 8:18]. The ‘sharp sword’, the ‘sharp sickle’, and the tormenting fire of both judgments is the Word of God, which will judge “every man” (1Co 3:13-15):

Rev 19:16  And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Rev 19:17  And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;[This is not “the marriage supper of The Lamb” mentioned in the first part of this 19^th chapter. This is the last gasp of dying flesh at ‘the battle of Armegeddon’, ‘when the thousand years of being ruled with a rod of iron are expired’, Rev 20:7]
Rev 19:18  That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. [the same “all men” of Rev 13, who “receive the mark, name, number and image of the beast”]
Rev 19:19  And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
Rev 19:20  And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive [as spirits] into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Rev 19:21  And the remnant were slain with the sword [or “sharp sickle”] of him that sat upon the horse, which sword [or sharp sickle] proceeded out of his mouth and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.  

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.

The works of all men are burned and all men are saved by “fire and brimstone”. It is the same fire in both the judgment of this present time and the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death. The fire of the first judgment is referred to simply as fire in 1Co 3:13-15, or it is called “fiery trials”, in 1Pe 4:12. It is never referred to as “the lake of fire” which does not appear until after the thousand year rule and after the “short season” of rebellion which immediately follows the thousand year reign of Christ and His elect.

Summary:

We have seen that our end is better than our beginning, and our death is better than our birth. We also saw that being “dead in Christ” is a spiritual statement concerning the spiritual condition of those who die in Christ in this present time. Dying to “life in this world” and living our new life as a “living sacrifice unto God”, are part of our judgment in this present time (Rom 8:18). We have seen that those who are being judged in this present time are signified by the 144,000 who will be raised up in the first “resurrection to life” at the beginning of the thousand year reign, as contrasted to those who will be raised up in the resurrection of the great white throne judgment after the thousand year reign of Christ and His Christ.

We have seen that the two groups of three angels in Revelation 14 signify the two resurrections of Revelation 7. The first being “the resurrection of life” of the 144,000, and the second and last resurrection being “the resurrection of judgment” at the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death (Rev 20:11-15).

We have seen that the first group of three angels in this 14^th chapter are those who endure the fire and brimstone of the Lord’s Word in this present time and who have been given the patience of the saints and the faith of Jesus and are blessed in their death in this present time:

Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them [“the resurrection of life”, Joh 5:27-29).

We have seen that “the dead which die in the Lord” are those who are granted to have a part in the ‘blessed and holy first resurrection” which ‘first resurrection’ transpires at the beginning of the thousand year reign.

We have also seen that the judgment of the second three angels is the great white throne judgment which concerns the judgment of all who were not given to have a part in the blessed and holy first resurrection.

Rev 14:14  And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud [one] sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
Rev 14:15  And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
Rev 14:16  And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.

The earth is not reaped by the first three angels of the first part of this 14^th chapter. Those reaped by those first three angels are those who have the patience of the saints and the faith of Jesus. Those who have “the patience of the saints… keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” are the 144,000 “firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” as contrasted with “the clusters of the earth’s… grape” harvest.

But we have also seen that the Son of Man, who is Christ, “comes on a cloud to reap the clusters of the earth’s vine” in the judgment of the second group of three angels. There is no mention of the preaching of the gospel nor “the patience of the saints”, nor “the faith of Jesus”. Instead the first two angels of this second set second judgment “come out of the temple in heaven”, and the third angel comes out of the altar. We know that the temple and the altar both signify those in whom Christ dwells in this present time. ‘The temple and the altar’ signify those in this present time who repent of their sins and are granted to have a part in that blessed and holy first resurrection:

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. [Those who rule with Christ for 1,000 years are those who come up in “the resurrection of life”, Joh 5:27-29]
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

It is through those who are given to have a part in this first resurrection, “our Lord’s Christ”, that Christ will ‘gather the clusters of the earth’s grapes”, the very last crop which ripens, with the same sharp sickle, which is nothing less than the “sharp two edged sword… which is the fiery… Word of God”.

Rev 14:17  And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
Rev 14:18  And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.

We have seen that the “winepress of the wrath of God” of these verses, is the same “wrath of God” contained in the seven plagues of the seven angels which must be fulfilled in every man who would enter into the temple of God in heaven (Rev 15:1 and 8).

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.

Finally we saw that the 1600 furlongs of blood signifies the blood of Christ which has been shed by every person who ever lived. 2 times 8 times signifies the witness of our new man against our old man. Multiplying that witness against our old man by 100, signifies the perdition of our flesh, and it signifies the destruction of all flesh.

https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?s=the+number+eight

The number 8 symbolizes our new man, who, even though “we have Christ in us as “this earthen vessel”, still must be “saved… by fire” as our old man’s iniquities are burned out of us.

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.

“Earthen vessels” are signified by the number ten and its multiple of ten times ten or 100. ‘Earthen vessels’ signify our dying corruptible bodies of flesh and blood which “cannot inherit the kingdom of God” and must “go into perdition”. So, 2x8x100 = 1600 furlongs.

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.

We will end this study by pointing out that just as the two groups in chapter seven have much in common, they both come up through great tribulation and wash their robes white in the blood of the Lamb, yet they also differ in that the first group in chapter 7 is numbered and the second group is not numbered. The first group is judged in this present time and have the patience and faith of the saints, keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. The first and the second group are both judged by the ‘fire and brimstone… wrath of God’. It is only the first group who are being judged in this present time, and who ‘have the patience of the saints, keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus’. These words are not used to describe the second group being judged by the second group of three angels.

The first group judged by three angels are called “the firstfruits unto God and the lamb” while the second group judged by three angels are called ‘the clusters of the grapes of the earth” which ‘grapes’ as any farmer knows well are anything but ‘firstfruits’ and are instead the very last thing on the farm to ripen and to be harvested.

In our next study, Lord willing, we will discover the meaning of the sea of glass mingled with fire, and we will discover what the significance is of getting the victory over the beast, his image, his mark, and the number of his name. We will also discover the Biblical significance of “having the harps of God”. Most importantly we will see the connection between the wrath of God, and the “manifest tokens of His judgment” (2Th 1:15)

2Th 1:4  So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
2Th 1:5  Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:

Here are the verses for our next study:

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
Rev 15:2  And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, [and] over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
Rev 15:3  And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous [are] thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true [are] thy ways, thou King of saints.
Rev 15:4  Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for [thou] only [art] holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/acts-111-18-they-that-were-of-the-circumcision-contended-with-peter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=acts-111-18-they-that-were-of-the-circumcision-contended-with-peter Sun, 02 Apr 2023 01:03:04 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=27398 Audio Download

Acts 11:1-18 They That Were of the Circumcision Contended With [Peter]

[Study Aired April 2, 2023]

Act 11:1  And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
Act 11:2  And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him,
Act 11:3  Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.
Act 11:4  But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying,
Act 11:5  I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me:
Act 11:6  Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Act 11:7  And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.
Act 11:8  But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.
Act 11:9  But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
Act 11:10  And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven.
Act 11:11  And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me.
Act 11:12  And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man’s house:
Act 11:13  And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;
Act 11:14  Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
Act 11:15  And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
Act 11:16  Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Act 11:17  Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?
Act 11:18  When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

—————–

Act 11:1  And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.

What had happened in Caesarea, with the apostle Peter entering the home of the Gentile Roman centurion, Cornelius, was shocking to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, but they acknowledged “that the Gentiles had also received the Word of God”. However, there were those who simply could not yet understand how this was possible:

Act 11:2  And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him,
Act 11:3  Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.

“They that were of the circumcision” means those Christian Jews who were “zealous of the law [of Moses]”, as James boasted before Paul in:

Act 21:19  And when he [Paul] had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.
Act 21:20  And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:

The events of Acts 21 are about fifteen years after Peter was given the honor of bringing the gospel to the Gentiles for the first time. Yet even the apostles at Jerusalem are not yet given to understand that “they of the circumcision”, while indeed being “zealous of the law”, will be counted as being “under tutors and governors” at a later standard (Gal 4:1-5), and therefore “carnal babes in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4). It is important to realize this standard was not yet applied when Paul himself was living under the law when he wrote the book of Galatians. It had been agreed in Acts 15 that the Gentiles did not need circumcision and the ordinances of Moses, but the Jews were required to continue in those things. If this is not true, then Paul would have been lying to Felix when he made this statement:

Act 24:11  Because that thou mayest understand, that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship.
Act 24:12  And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city:
Act 24:13  Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me.

The accusation made against Paul in Acts 21 was:

Act 21:21  And they [the Jewish believers in Jerusalem] are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.

Stephen and the apostle James, the brother of John, one of the two sons of Zebedee, died as martyrs before the holy spirit revealed that favor with God was no longer tethered to being physically attached to Abraham. Stephen and James were not considered ‘carnal babes in Christ’, because it had not yet been revealed at the time of their deaths that the law of Moses was no longer the standard for the righteousness needed for salvation. The apostles, Paul himself included, as late as the end of Paul’s third journey when he went up and was apprehended of the Jews in Acts 21, were all still very much attached to the law of Moses:

Act 21:18  And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.
Act 21:19  And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.
Act 21:20  And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:

It seemed impossible to the apostles that “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” could possibly also become the God of the Gentiles without first becoming proselytes to Judaism. It is hard for any of us to accommodate such a great doctrinal change. It seemed as impossible as one rising up from among the dead. Christ had told His disciples well in advance that He would be murdered and raised back to life, and yet not even His own apostles believed that would happen:

Mar 16:9  Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.
Mar 16:10  And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept.
Mar 16:11  And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.

Mar 16:14  Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.

That is the lesson for all of us as we read of the spiritual immaturity of the apostles and of the churches they established. One and all, we begin our walk with the Lord as “carnal babes in Christ”, and it requires the patience of the saints to bear with us until we no longer need a schoolmaster to teach us and to help us get from our classroom to the lunchroom.

That was Paul’s experience with the Corinthians and the Galatians:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Pointing out the revelation that the gospel would go to the Gentiles and that the law of Moses would no longer be the standard for the righteousness of Christ is not to condemn the apostles. Christ does not have us give an accounting for what He has not yet told us. Christ Himself told His disciples:

Mat 23:1  Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2  Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
Mat 23:3  All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Mat 23:4  For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

“All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do” in no way conflicts with the holy spirit telling Peter to go to the house of a Gentile, if we are granted to acknowledge the progressive revelation of scripture. The first Adam knows nothing of ‘the things of the spirit’. In fact, ‘the things of the spirit are foolishness unto him’:

1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world [the letter of the law], but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things [of the spirit] that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth [the letter of the law], but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things [spiritual realities] with spiritual [types and shadows].
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The natural man has no trouble understanding these words:

Deu 7:1  When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
Deu 7:2  And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

Peter could easily understand those words. Those are utterly carnal words, admonishing physical, natural Israel to perform carnal actions against her carnal enemies. What Peter had to be made to understand through his own miraculous vision, supernaturally connected to the equally miraculous vision which was earlier given to Cornelius, was the spiritual meaning of those words. Those carnal-minded words are being used by the holy spirit as types and shadows of our carnal nature to tell us, if we have the mind of the spirit, that we are fighting spiritual giants in our own spiritual land. We are commanded to completely destroy those lusts, passions and false doctrines, and every spiritual thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and ‘make no covenant with them and spiritually show them no mercy’.

The Lord knew from the beginning that such a marvelous work would require a lot of time. The Lord’s plan all along was to create a carnal, dying body of flesh and bones, for the purpose  of giving it an experience of evil which would then provide Him with the occasion He is seeking to crush and humble us.

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

Therefore, the first ‘Adam’ was only the very first step toward the making of mankind into the image of God. The clay model is nothing more than a necessary evil which must be endured as an integral part of the process of creating mankind in the image of God and His Son.

Jeremiah later expresses this Truth with these words:

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made [Hebrew: Qal stem, indicating a process, not the finished product] of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made [Qal stem ‘is making’] it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

What bookends this subject and sinks the false doctrine of God giving mankind a will that is free from His influence is the fact that both Jeremiah 18:4 and this verse of Genesis 1 are in the Qal stem, a form of Hebrew grammar which correlates to the aorist tense in the Greek language:

Gen 1:27 And creating [Qal stem] is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them.

 In other words, God is in the process of making mankind in His image and after His likeness. The ‘first Adam’ is but the first part of that creation process.

The second stage of that process does not begin until after the sacrifice of Christ was made. That is why the Lord made this statement to His apostles the very same evening in which He was apprehended by the Jews, just before His crucifixion:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

This entire story of Peter entering into the home of a Gentile, and eating with that Gentile, is all a part of revealing to each of us how hard it is for us to give up all our own weaknesses and all the false doctrines we cherished  while we were at home in our own Babylonian experience.

Christ had already made it clear by every “…but I say unto you” statement in:

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

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

Mat 5:31  It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
Mat 5:32  But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
Mat 5:33  Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
Mat 5:34  But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:

Mat 5:38  Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
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 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

…that He had come to reform the law of Moses, as Moses had prophesied that He would:

Deu 18:15  The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
Deu 18:16  According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
Deu 18:17  And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
Deu 18:18  I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
Deu 18:19  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
Deu 18:20  But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.

This is that part of the law of Moses which identifies Christ as the prophesied reforming Messiah who would reform the law. Instead of understanding and accepting the words of Christ as the fulfilling of this prophecy, the scribes and Pharisees, along with the priests and elders of Israel, used  this very scripture to justify the death of Christ by claiming He was casting out devils “in the name of other gods… by the power of Beelzebub.” All their eyes and the eyes of Saul of Tarsus could see were the words “even that prophet shall die”:

Mat 12:22  Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. [As a type of you and me]
Mat 12:23  And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?
Mat 12:24  But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.

Nevertheless, those who made this accusation against Christ were “they which were of the circumcision”, and the apostles of Christ had not yet been brought to see that being “of the circumcision” would in time be revealed to be spiritually immature. This immaturity is on display when James makes it clear that as of the Jerusalem conference in Acts 15, which was several years after the death and resurrection of Christ, “they of the circumcision” still considered the local synagogue to be the church of God:

Act 15:12  Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.
Act 15:13  And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:
Act 15:14  Simeon [Peter] hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
Act 15:15  And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
Act 15:16  After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
Act 15:17  That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
Act 15:18  Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
Act 15:19  Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
Act 15:20  But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21  For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

These words, “Moses [is] being read in the synagogues every sabbath day” demonstrate that the whole Jewish Christian church in Jerusalem, including all the original twelve apostles, minus Judas but including Mathias, considered the “reading [of] Moses… in every city… in the synagogues every sabbath” to be sufficient for Jewish Christians to “rebuild the tabernacle of Moses… That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called.”

In other words, the apostles at this time still believed their salvation depended on keeping the law of Moses and that “the tabernacle of David” was consisted only of those who were physically descended from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob or were proselytes to Judaism and who were physically circumcised and keeping the law of Moses. The letter to the Gentiles did not require the Gentiles to be circumcised, but that letter made it clear that the apostles and elders at Jerusalem did indeed think that “them that were of the circumcision” must be physically circumcised and keep the law of Moses. All the twelve original apostles at this conference, with the exception of Peter, thought that physical circumcision was essential for the salvation of any Jewish Christian. Peter is obliged to explain to the other apostles (“they of the circumcision”) why he broke the law of Moses which forbade any Jew from fraternizing with, entering the house of, and eating with any Gentile:

Act 11:4  But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying,

If the angel had appeared to Cornelius after Peter had his vision, then someone might say that Cornelius made his story up to fit Peter’s vision. However, the whole thing took place in a order which made it impossible to deny that it was a supernatural work of God. That is why Peter expounded it to the apostles in the order in which the holy spirit worked those events, and it all accords with Christ’s words:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

Peter does not specifically refer to Christ’s words in John 16:12, but he does affirm that it was the spirit which ‘bade him to go’ with the three Gentile men inquiring for him at the door of the house of Simon the tanner.

Act 11:5  I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me:
Act 11:6  Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Act 11:7  And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.
Act 11:8  But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.
Act 11:9  But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
Act 11:10  And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven.
Act 11:11  And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me.
Act 11:12  And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man’s house:

Peter and “these six brethren” equal seven Jews who were the complete witness of the holy spirit being given to the Gentiles before they were even baptized.

Act 11:13  And he [Cornelius] shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;
Act 11:14  Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
Act 11:15  And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
Act 11:16  Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Act 11:17  Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?
Act 11:18  When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

‘God… hath… also to the Gentile granted repentance unto life!’ What a shocking development! It seemed to contradict everything these Jews had ever believed, but it had been done in such a way that it simply could not be denied. God had given His spirit to them without the benefit of either circumcision or baptism. When Peter reminds the other apostles that Christ had said “Ye shall be baptized with the holy ghost”, Peter was applying those words to these uncircumcised Gentiles, and Peter was making it clear that he personally counted the Gentiles as part of those to whom Christ had made that promise.

There was simply no way that Cornelius could possibly have known that a man name Simon, whose surname was Peter, and was lodging with another man named Simon, who was a tanner and who lived by the sea shore. Nevertheless, when the men Cornelius sent to enquire for Peter it was all exactly as the angel had told Cornelius, and there was no way Peter could deny that His vision of a sheet filled with all manners of unclean beasts accorded with the three ‘unclean’ Gentiles who the spirit told Peter were calling for him. When the Lord wants us to know something, He works circumstances so that we cannot deny what He has shown us to be His work and His words.

If He wants to confirm to us that the thousand-year reign is over the natural, physical “kingdoms of this world” and that the establishment of that kingdom is preceded by “the resurrection of life”, and then that thousand years of ruling over the kingdoms of this world is followed by a short period of a natural and physical rebellion of ‘the nations in the four quarters of the earth’ against the “camp of the saints”, providing the Lord with the occasion He is seeking to “destroy death”, then He can and He has ‘expounded to us in order’ exactly what are the necessary events to confirm that doctrine in our hearts and minds in a way that cannot be denied. Truly if we are His “disciples indeed” then “all things are for [our] sakes”:

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

Christ warned us against setting dates. Nevertheless, He Himself gives us a very specific timeline of the events He is bringing to pass to bring all of mankind to be made in His image and after His likeness:

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

The timing of this momentous event and the events that follow it are all clearly laid out for us in the fifteen short verses of:

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season [Notice the order of events].
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. [Notice the order of events] This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

The thousand-year reign is not designed to produce the great revival we have been led to believe from our years in the churches of this world. Instead, the thousand-year reign of the Lord and His Christ is designed to demonstrate that physical rulership, even if it is by the Lord and His Christ, does not convert the souls of men. All that physical rulership with a rod of iron produces in mankind is rebellion, just as Israel’s time under the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day for forty years proved. That is what living under a rod of iron for a thousand years also produces:

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

This great final rebellion which comes only “when the thousand years are expired”, provides the Lord with the occasion He is seeking to destroy death by the destruction of the source of death which is the rebellious carnal mind. That rebellious carnal mind is integral to and is within all dying flesh and blood:

Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

This has always been presented to us as the single most dreadful moment in all human history, because it is presented as the beginning of everlasting, eternal torment for the vast majority of humankind. The Truth is that this is the single greatest work of grace ever experienced by mankind, because the grace of God chastens and judges us, and the lake of fire is the second death, and the second death begins with the great white throne judgment:

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books [of Psa 139:16] were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life [the book of those who were resurrected a thousand years earlier, who reigned with Christ over the kingdoms of this world for a thousand years and are now the judges of angels in this ‘great white throne judgment/lake of fire/ second death’]: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life [whosoever was not in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection”] was cast into the lake of fire [as the ‘second’ group to experience the death of their old man].

That is how all of mankind will finally be made in the image and likeness of God. It all culminates in the greatest work of God’s chastening grace known as ‘the great white throne… judgment’. It is a ‘white’ throne. It is not a dark, black throne judgment.

Now let’s ask a very simple question… What do all of God’s judgments produce? Here is the answer to that question:

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 [the lake of] fire.

It is not adding to the words of God to insert the words ‘the lake of’ in that verse because this is what all of God’s judgments, including this “great white throne… judgment” produce:

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

Resurrection precedes the day of judgment. There are only two resurrection and only two days of judgment mentioned in all scripture. We are at this very moment living in the first judgment day:

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

These verses refer to the first day of judgment which Christ calls “the resurrection of life”, because those few who are blessed to be in that resurrection are being judged in this present time. According to Christ Himself there are many who are not being judged in this present life, and they will come up out of their graves at a much later judgment which He labels “the resurrection of judgment”:

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [that “blessed and holy… first resurrection” which immediately precedes the thousand year reign]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920: ‘krisis’, judgment, the great white throne judgment].

Peter understood Christ’s word’s “Ye shall be baptized with the holy ghost and with fire” to include the Gentiles to whom the Lord had sent him. That baptism of fire, spoken of by the Lord and repeated by Peter in our study today, is now on the house of God, and that baptism of fire is the ‘death of Christ’ into which we are now being baptized:

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Every word in these verses dealing with being buried with Christ into His death is in the aorist tense because we are in a process of “dying daily” with Christ, and being baptized into His death. That daily dying is our judgment in this present time that Peter speaks of in 1 Peter 4:17, and if we are judged in this present time, then we will not be raised up in “the resurrection of judgment”:

1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves [in this present time], we should not be judged [in the resurrection of judgment (Joh 5:28-29)].
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged [whether in this present time or in the resurrection of judgment], we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned [to the resurrection of judgment] with the world.

 While the phrase ‘first death’ is not to be found in scripture, the phrases “first trusted in Christ” (Eph 1:12) and the phrase ‘judgment… first begins at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17) are scriptural phrases which establish the fact that those who suffer death to their old man in this present time (Rom 8:18) are indeed suffering the first death as opposed to “the second death” which is “the lake of fire”

Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

The second death is the death of the old man in the second resurrection. The death of our old man which we are seeking is the one that is “[now] on the house of God” and leads to “the resurrection of life” at the beginning of the thousand-year reign of Christ and His Christ:

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead [who do not live and reign with Christ during that thousand years] lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

The Book of Joshua – Part 4, Jos 4:1-24 Israel Crosses the Jordan

[Study Aired March 11, 2023]

Concluding the last study, the Priests who represent the Elect of God were the first to touch the word of God with their feet in the Jordan River of His word. It was a momentous event in Israel and, ultimately, for the world.

Today, the spiritual Priests of God already had their feet in the spiritual Jordan upon Christ’s death. They, as the Lord’s Elect, have been routing their land of their enemies for two thousand years.

The entire nation of Israel, including the mixed multitude representing everyone’s eventual salvation in their own order, entered the physical Promised Land. Following everyone’s safe exit from the Jordan, the heaped-up water turbulently cascaded the dead works of Israel’s slothfulness from Egypt to Shittim into the Sea of Salt, through the land where their forebearers, Sodom and Gomorrah, were consumed in a physical lake of fire.

Jos 4:1 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, 
Jos 4:2 Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, 
Jos 4:3 And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. 
Jos 4:4 Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: 
Jos 4:5  And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the Ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: 
Jos 4:6 That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? 
Jos 4:7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. 
Jos 4:8 And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. 
Jos 4:9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the Ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day. 
Jos 4:10 For the priests which bare the Ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over. 
Jos 4:11 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the Ark of the LORD passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people. 
Jos 4:12 And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them: 
Jos 4:13 About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the LORD unto battle, to the plains of Jericho. 
Jos 4:14 On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life. 
Jos 4:15 And the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, 
Jos 4:16 Command the priests that bear the Ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan. 
Jos 4:17 Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan. 
Jos 4:18 And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the Ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before. 
Jos 4:19 And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho. 
Jos 4:20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. 
Jos 4:21 And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? 
Jos 4:22 Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. 
Jos 4:23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over: 
Jos 4:24 That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever. 

Jos 4:1 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, 

Notice that the spirit deemed it necessary to state that Israel “cleaned passed over the Jordan” since it effectively means that the entire world of humanity will ultimately be saved (1Co 15:32). All of Israel, including the mixed multitude, went into the Promised Land, just as the entire world will go into the purifying nature of the Lake of Fire.

Jos 4:2 Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, 
Jos 4:3 And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. 

The twelve tribes of Israel represent the foundations (12 = foundation, which is Christ) of our Lord’s first wife, whose foundations are unwittingly being set up to be rejected for her coming God-given whoredoms. At a much later date, she is the field into which the coming harvest of first fruits will be dragged to go before the main harvest of souls, the entirety of Israel and humanity numbered as the sand of the sea. The Lord lays the foundation for His anointed rejected wife and His anointed elected wife. The latter lively stones of the foundation are spiritually cut out of Christ’s body by His hands, just as Eve was physically taken out of Adam’s body (Gen 2:23, 1Co 11:8-9).

1Co 3:9 For of God we are fellow-workers, a field of God, and you are a building of God.
1Co 3:10 According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let every man be careful how he builds on it.
1Co 3:11 For any other foundation can no one lay than the one being laid, who is Jesus Christ.

1Co 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

The Body of Christ is the priests bearing Christ, our Babylonian brothers and sisters having collected 12 stones from around our feet, representing the eternal foundation of Christ, and Him the chief cornerstone. The spirit of God eventually dwells in every seed of man conceived, represented by all twelve stones and testifying that all will be made alive in Christ.

There appears to be an unaccounted loss of time from when the stones are elected from around the feet of the Priest and taken to where Israel lodged and their unaccounted-for being returned to be erected in the “midst” of the Jordan. The stones are evidently left unstructured where the Israelites lodged for an unspecified time. All this time, the spring water from the Jordan must have been heaping up into a mighty dam, perhaps kilometres wide, since in verse 9, “Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.”

Jos 4:4 Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: 
Jos 4:5 And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the Ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: 
Jos 4:6 That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?

The twelve physical tribes of the nation of Israel shouldered in the figurative heat of the day the “natural that [would eventually] point to the spiritual”, symbolised by the memorial of the twelve stones. The people of Israel were to be the model and sign to the rest of the world as an example of how to submit to the Lord physically, that by His design, graphically show the world the consequences of how futile it is to build one’s Temple within without the Lord’s spirit. Of course, the spiritual meaning of the stones also represents that salvation is the burden of the remnant spiritual Jews, carried upon their shoulders by the power and might of Christ.

Isa 11:10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse [King David to Christ], which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek [eventually the entire world]: and his rest shall be glorious.
Isa 11:11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
Isa 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Isa 11:13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. [Because the spiritual Jews will rule]
Isa 11:14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
Isa 11:15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. 

The entire world’s religious systems shall be smitten, as was the Jordan, to make way for the Bride of Christ to rule with Him in the one-thousand year reign with the rod of iron, and then peacefully forever.

Isa 11:16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

Christ’s Christs are the final Temple of God dragged from every nation and built upon Him, the heavenly Jerusalem above. How? Before Christ, the physical nation of Israel was depicted as Jews since the Priesthood was from the physical tribe of Judah and Levi, which we know could never bring salvation. Nonetheless, the entire twelve tribes were Christ’s first wife and were holy for that age, even though the memory of Korah’s rebellion and, later, Uzzah would be a painful reminder that only the Priests could ‘touch’ the Ark.

Joh 6:63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

Exo 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 

Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well:

Joh 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 

Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [living spiritually] is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Rev 22:16 I Jesus have sent my angel [His Bride, the Body of Christ] to testify these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

From those examples, we see that the twelve stones are the foundational memorial of physical Israel’s glory, pointing to the yet unseen spiritual glory of the immovable memorial, Christ.

Jos 4:7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. 

Maybe for several hundred years, Israel’s children enquired about the physical twelve stones erected amid the Jordan. While they were taken out of the Jordan, they apparently were returned and constructed amid the Jordan. That action breaks all the laws of physics since when the massive pile of water resumes thunderously on its way to the Salt Sea (Dead Sea), the erected memorial, but for a miracle, would have been washed hundreds of metres, if not kilometres, downstream and destroyed.

The river Jordan represents the world of humanity, particularly Babylonian Christianity, with its false doctrines and whoredoms, whose waters have no strength against Israel’s God. That mighty flood of falsehoods could never sweep away the puny twelve stones piled amid the Jordan as it rushed down past the infamous cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. Neither could it “cut off” the word of God before the resurrection or destroy the living water of the word of God in the latter days even while held unrighteously in blindness by the same woman from Mount Sinai.

Jos 4:7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. 

The meaning of “for ever” is a foundational doctrine in the Body of Christ, knowing that ‘forever’ either means age-lasting or literally eternally lasting. The maturing Christ will know that these physical stones have not lasted “forever”, yet they signify Christ as lasting eternally.

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

The new nation of Israel in the flesh was the precursor memorial that points to the spiritual holy remnant, Christ’s wife, with everything in scripture being done for her and through her in Christ. Together, they are the “memorial” “forever” that eventually brings the world to salvation.

Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Heb 8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Heb 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

The Bride of Christ is the twelve stones that remain a memorial to this day, and forever. For the moment, the Dragon continuously makes war as a flood until the First Resurrection when Christ and his Christs cut off the flood of lies.

Jos 4:8 And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. 

Israel passed over the Jordan and laid the stones down where they camped; yet, scripture doesn’t account for the apparent returning of the stones to the midst of the Jordan where the feet of the priests who bore the Ark stood. Therefore, the water was held back for an unspecified time, making quite a “heap” of dammed water. No spring flood of lies can wash away the word of God.

Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

Jos 4:9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.(KJV)
Jos 4:10 Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until the people had completed everything the LORD had commanded Joshua to tell them, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried across, (BSB)

The theme that the physical precedes the spiritual is a massive spiritual truth, and its presence continues to etch our spiritual minds with the above three verses.

The feet of the Bride of Christ have touched the mountain of the Lord, and Him the Ark and the Covenant with Him as they are being saved “unto this day”.

“Everything” is being finished as the Lord commanded us as we are passing over our Jordan heaped up to our right. The Elect of God bears Christ through the one-thousand years until all Gog and Magog hurry across through the consuming fire into the Lake of Fire.

Jos 4:11 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the LORD passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people. 
Jos 4:12 And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them: 
Jos 4:13 About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the LORD unto battle, to the plains of Jericho. 

As seen, the corresponding ‘passing over’ from the one thousand years and the death of all flesh is with the Priests in the presence of the people into the Lake of Fire.

The tribe of Reuben, who is the eldest son of Jacob by Leah, and Gad, the seventh son of Jacob by Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid, and Manasseh is the eldest son of Joseph. Reuben and Gad represent the entirety of Israel in becoming the rejected wife from Mt Sinai, while Manasseh, even though full of harlotry, represents the Elect of God, who eventually comes out of Egypt, Sodom, and Assyria, representing collective Babylon.

The Lord, depicted as Moses, addressed His little Church to be ready for war, whereby the sword would never depart our flesh for the whole (number 4) of our time before the First Resurrection. Remember that Jericho means “moon”, and the plains of Jericho will represent the lies of the ‘moon’, the Great Whore of Babylonian Christianity, whom we learn to rightly divide by the sword of truth.

Jos 4:14 On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life. 
Jos 4:15 And the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, 
Jos 4:16 Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan. 
Jos 4:17 Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan. 
Jos 4:18 And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before. 

Unlike Israel’s physical fearing of Joshua and Moses, the Bride of Christ’s fear has matured and has become a delighted fear where they diligently look for the children of lies within all the days of their lives.

It ends with them being the first to “come up out of the Jordan” to receive no more death at the First Resurrection. They have born the Ark in Christ amid tribulations as the world is returned to the deep darkness, depicted as the waters of the Jordan returning to their place, as it did at the Red Sea and Noah’s time, and now the one thousand years.

First, the physical comes before the spiritual, as Israel only begins their wars in the “tenth day of the first month”.

Jos 4:19 And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho. 

The tenth day of the first month represents Passover, and evidently, again, Israel passed over the Jordan.

Exo 12:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
Exo 12:2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. 
Exo 12:3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:

Just as Jericho means “moon”, the month of Abib, or Nisan (H2320 – the new moon; to make anew; rebuild), is the beginning of the new moon that, ironically for us, remains the old moon of the Woman in the wilderness. As we know, the Lord’s Church and His anointed rejected church know He is their Passover, yet, we distinguish that only one holds the truth in righteousness.

Eph 4:4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
Eph 4:5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 
Eph 4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Eph 4:7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Eph 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

Jos 4:20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. 
Jos 4:21 And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? 
Jos 4:22 Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. 

As we know, Israel was in the process of coming out of a physical “deep” to dry land in light of the Law, only to unwittingly remain in utter darkness until Christ. Even then, the Moon still reigned in her half-light of truth.

Jos 4:23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over: 
Jos 4:24 That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever. 

Our sisters and brothers in Babylon will soon become increasingly peeved about His Elect, as did Joseph’s brothers, for his God-given preeminence, since the Elect cheerfully “fear the Lord forever”. However, until the end of the one thousand years, they, like Solomon looking questioningly at the enigma of the Shulamite, will see those who rule over them, yet not entirely “know what mean these stones” until the Resurrection to Judgment, where the rest of humanity will have a forced wait ‘forever’ into that resurrection for His graciousness.

Isa 30:18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
Isa 30:19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
Isa 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
Isa 30:21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

The Book of Joshua – Part 3: Israel Crosses the Jordan – Jos 3:1-17

[Study Aired March 5, 2023]

“The last shall be first, and the first last.”

It is glaringly obvious to the Body of Christ that the ‘natural precedes the spiritual’ when understanding anything in scripture, particularly the physical Promised Land as a shadow of Christ, the Elect’s inheritance.

Since Christ’s death on the cross to this day, and until the First Resurrection, the Elect of God is the last to cross their spiritual Jordan. The rest of immature Babylonian Christianity, and in their minds, jubilantly have already crossed.

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

It is natural for mainstream Christianity to think it would mirror the Israelites’ mass crossing their figurative Jordan at Christ’s coming and entering eternal life. However, not knowing that the natural precedes the spiritual, nor understanding the spirit, blinds their understanding of the two resurrections.

For the Bride of Christ, we shall see in this study that the Priests bearing the Ark cross last, and represent her.

Jos 3:1 And Joshua rose early in the morning. And they moved from Shittim and came to Jordan, he and all the sons of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.
Jos 3:2 And it happened after three days the officers went through the host.
Jos 3:3 And they commanded the people saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then you shall move from your place and go after it.
Jos 3:4 Yet keep a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, so that you may know the way by which you must go. For you have not passed this way before now.
Jos 3:5 And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow Jehovah will do wonders among you.
Jos 3:6 And Joshua spoke to the priests saying, Take up the ark of the covenant and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.
Jos 3:7 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Today, I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel so that they may know that I will be with you, as I was with Moses.
Jos 3:8 And you shall command the priests that carry the ark of the covenant, saying, When you have come to the brink of the water of Jordan, you shall stand still in Jordan.
Jos 3:9 And Joshua said to the sons of Israel, Come here and hear the Words of Jehovah your God. 
Jos 3:10 And Joshua said, By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 
Jos 3:11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into Jordan.
Jos 3:12 And now take yourselves twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. 
Jos 3:13 And it shall be, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that carry the ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above. And they shall stand all in a heap. 
Jos 3:14 And it happened, when the people moved from their tents to pass over Jordan, and as the priests carried the ark of the covenant before the people, 
Jos 3:15 and as those who bore the ark had come to Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bore the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for Jordan overflows all its banks, all the time of harvest); 
Jos 3:16 that the waters which came down from above stopped and rose up all in a heap, very far from the city Adam that is beside Zaretan. And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over across from Jericho. 
Jos 3:17 And the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah stood firm on dry ground in the middle of Jordan. And all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people had passed completely over Jordan. 

——–

Jos 3:1 And Joshua rose early in the morning. And they moved from Shittim and came to Jordan, he and all the sons of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.

Shittim is located east of the Jordan River and approximately 15 miles north of the Dead Sea. The Shittim wood is a particular type of Acacia that must have dominated the area’s landscape to be named, Shittim. The wood of the Ark of the Covenant was made of Shittim wood overlaid with pure gold. The origin of the name Shittim is H7850 and means to ‘scourge; pierce’. If the same Acacia at Shittim is common to most of continental Africa, it is noted for long thorns, among which are the tree leaves that animals, particularly Giraffes, love to forage. 

The type of plant, the thorns that the soldiers plaited for Jesus, is simply referred to as a “briar” and could be any type of thorny shrubbery (Joh 19:2), and one’s Western mindset goes immediately to an easily plaited blackberry-type briar. Yet, that crown of thorns could more likely be a Shittim “briar” from the young flexible branches of the Shittim Acacia, particularly since its name means to scourge and pierce.  Not only that, but the Ark of the Covenant (Exo 25:10) containing the word of God commanded the same scourging and piercing nature.

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.

The Body of Christ individually, yet collectively lodged many years in Shittim on the figurative east bank of our Jordan River, unwittingly waiting for the command to pass over. We thought we had arrived in the Promised Land many years ago upon being baptised with water in Gentile Christianity. We never understood that we would have to rise early to fight battles where the piercing sword of our Lord’s word crowning our heads would never leave our house.

Of course, we know that the sword never leaving our spiritual house is a glorious thing which King David wasn’t spiritually given to appreciate. Upon his sin with Bathsheba:

2Sa 12:9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
2Sa 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

Jos 3:2 And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host [the camp of Israel]; 
Jos 3:3 And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. 

As we have understood for many years and seen in Part 2 of this study of Joshua, the third (Number 3) is the process of a particular matter. While the Israelites suffered the tribulation of forty years in the wilderness (Number 4 representing the whole of the matter), they were now required to wait three days on the east bank of the Jordan. For the more God-given astute Gentile Christians, adding 4+3=7 signifies their entry into their Promised Land of eternal life, where they erroneously believe, as demonstrated by the Israelites crossing the Jordan, all Christian believers are now saved.

It is the same pattern for the Elect of God today, only with Christ’s spirit within discerning His spirit since we will see an incredible significance that the Priests can only bear the Ark and be last to cross the Jordan.

The Elect of God see that the number 3 signifies the process of spiritual completion through judgment; to them, waiting to cross the Jordan is only the beginning of that process within each member. Having been given eyes that see and ears that hear to discern their Lord’s spirit and becoming perfected on their ”third day” before entering the First Resurrection on the Seventh Day, they are following Christ’s pattern of perfection before He returned to His former glory with the Father.

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

The nation of Israel was the growing, yet immature, old earthy Jerusalem being established in the wilderness and remains to this very day as the Great Whore, the Lord’s rejected wife. As such, the prophet Moses didn’t die outside of old Israel, effectively symbolized as a type of Jerusalem (Salem). In perfect parallel, the prophets of Christ, His Christs, die daily inside the same Old Jerusalem as they move into the heavenly Jerusalem being established within. 

Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 
Rev 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Jos 3:4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits [1 cubit = 18 inches] by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore. 

Interestingly, a space exists between Christ’s death and the First Resurrection of approximately two thousand years (two thousand cubits). In parallel, like physical Israel preparing to cross the physical Jordan, a mighty space exists between the anointed rejected wife and the anointed elected Bride of Christ. Only the Bride can know the way they must go since nobody other than the Lord’s Priests can or any person preceding them have ever passed this way since (“heretofore”) Adam.  

Num 4:15 And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.

The origin of the cubit measurement of distance means H517′ mother’. How fitting that the Bride of Christ, who is becoming our Lord’s wife, is the “mother of us all”, and nobody may come near her understanding of the Lord’s spirit. Yet for the moment, on the banks of the Jordan, the two women within the one woman, greater Israel, are oblivious to her inherent bondage, even while ecstatic at the prospect of possessing the physical Promised Land.

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

Jos 3:5 And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.

As we are accustomed to knowing, sanctifying ourselves means setting ourselves apart from our ways and devoting ourselves to the Lord for any occasion, and for this cause, the coming battle against Jericho. Today, the Bride has mighty spiritual strength by His faith for us to win our daily battles (1Sa 17:47, 1Jn 1:9, 1Pe 5:6-7). The Body of Christ has seen the wonders of Him in each joint of the Bride and is physically seen by the particular account of the Lord going before Israel against Jericho. In human history, this is the only generation (since the cross) led by the Bride of Christ ever to experience passing “this way” through Christ going spiritually before them. Through being in Christ, she is as He is, represented by the Priests being the only ones who can touch the Ark and not die, taking it up and passing over before the people of the entire world.

Jos 3:6 And Joshua spoke to the priests saying, Take up the ark of the covenant and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.
Jos 3:7 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Today, I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel so that they may know that I will be with you, as I was with Moses.

Although the ones who say that they are Jews do unknowingly lie about their spiritual orientation (Rev 2:9, Rev 3:9, Rom 2:28), for the moment, they are blind to Christ being magnified in their sight. It will only be after the First Resurrection that they will become disconcertedly aware that the Lord is primarily with that little flock represented by the Priests, as he was with Moses.

In Israel, Joshua and the Priests are magnified for the incipient separation of the two women; the rejected wife and the finally elected wife. Hence, both parties “pass over” the Jordan, unaware that the Priests and the main camp of Israel will become two women. The fact that Israel unwittingly crossed the Jordan at harvest time prophesies the future established little harvest and the main harvest of souls in two very different resurrections. 

Jos 3:8 And you shall command the priests that carry the ark of the covenant, saying, When you have come to the brink of the water of Jordan, you shall stand still in Jordan.

The significance of standing still on the bank of the raging spring water overflowing the banks of the Jordan (from H3381 – to go down, descend, march down, to be taken down) is to magnify the strength of God in the hearts of the people. To the natural mind, Wildebeest en-mass crossing the Masai Mara River in central Africa has more hope of survival.

There were tens of thousands of mothers with children burdened with clothing and possessions; helping the young men manage animals and carts looked like a catastrophe waiting to happen. What will the Body of Christ do in every likelihood in this age to be tested similarly and typified by a host of other preceding Saints having faced dire circumstances (Remember Daniel; Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego; Christ)? Of course, if the Lord wills, He will likewise conduct a physically safe passage even though our spiritual passage is assured.

Psa 27:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 

Psa 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. (See all of Psalm 27)

Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Jos 3:10 And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 

The Lord was teaching the children of Israel to believe in Him. It took a multitude of miracles in Egypt to the brink of the Jordan to teach a carnal nation that the Lord is true to his word, and now, with another series of miracles. A little upcoming win over Jericho would bolster Israel’s faith in her Lord to rout their land of more significant enemies.

For the Body of Christ, miracles are largely terminated. No hearts before or after Christ were converted by miracles.

Mat 16:1 The Pharisees and the Sadducees came to Him, tempting Him. And they asked Him that He would show them a sign from Heaven. 
Mat 16:2 He answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say, Fair weather; for the sky is red. 
Mat 16:3 And in the morning, Foul weather today; for the sky is red and gloomy. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot see the signs of the times! 
Mat 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. And there shall no sign be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And He left them and went away.

Jos 3:11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into Jordan. 

Stephen, like Christ, did many miracles before the people, yet the Pharisees and Christians still killed them both (Act 6:8). Nonetheless, endless physical miracles must precede the Body of Christ, and they, having not personally witnessed outward miracles, have no excuse to not believe spiritually. Hence, Christ, the covenant of all the earth, has passed over by His spirit and shown us the way to likewise save our brothers and sisters.

Jos 3:12 And now take yourselves twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. 
Jos 3:13 And it shall be, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that carry the ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above. And they shall stand all in a heap.

The twelve sons of Jacob represent every person and nation on Earth and spiritually signify the ultimate salvation of every conception since Adam. It begins with the feet of Christ touching the mountains of the Lord, the Bride of Christ, and Him taking his Bride over her figurative Jordan into the First Resurrection. His feet touched the Mount of Olives two thousand years ago, and he cleaved the woman in two – the Old Jerusalem and the Heavenly Jerusalem.

That original rift was unwittingly created by Hagar, the Bond Woman, Old Covenant Israel, crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land leaving behind those who died in the wilderness. As we know, she continued her unfaithfulness to her Husband, and the process was again implemented spiritually at the cross; only this time for his very few faithful followers. 

Just as the Lord’s first wife was baptized crossing the Red Sea and sanctified crossing the raging Jordan, the Lord’s new Bride is baptized with fire as she crosses her spiritual Jordan in the duality of the Mount of Olives split in two with a gulf the Bond Woman cannot cross.

Zec 14:4 And His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall divide from its middle, from the east and to the west, a very great valley. And half of the mountain shall move toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all [the twelve tribes symbolizing the entirety of humanity] will be made alive. 
1Co 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the first-fruit, and afterward they who are Christ’s at His coming.

“And it shall be, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that carry the ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above. And they shall stand all in a heap.”

For two thousand years, the sea of humanity has been cut off and stands in a heap, like the waters of the Jordan, while the Lord’s Elect cross into the First Resurrection. 

After which, and having been cut off, they rage in a torrent as Gog and Magog as they, too, rush into the Dead Sea, which symbolically is the Lake of Fire that will purify the great harvest in the Resurrection to Judgment.

Jos 3:14 And it happened, when the people moved from their tents to pass over Jordan, and as the priests carried the ark of the covenant before the people, 
Jos 3:15 and as those who bore the ark had come to Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bore the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for Jordan overflows all its banks, all the time of harvest);
Jos 3:16 that the waters which came down from above stopped and rose up all in a heap, very far from the city Adam [‘red; first man’] that is beside Zaretan [‘their distress’]. And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over across from Jericho. 

The Bride of Christ carries Him, as Solomon was carried in his royal carriage on the shoulders of his ascribed ‘elect’. Carrying the Ark, she goes before her brothers and sisters of Gog and Magog, who number as the sand of the sea (Rev 20:8) who are pictorially heaped up waiting in turbulent distress and their order for salvation since Adam, having been completely cut off from the First Resurrection.  

Even though the entire nation of Israel, including the mixed multitude, are all symbolised going into the Promised Land, it signifies that the entire world of humanity will be saved upon the completion of the Eight Day. 

Isa 43:1 Now this is what the LORD says— He who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine!
Isa 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched; the flames will not set you ablaze. 
Isa 43:3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. (BSB)

Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

Jos 3:17 The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over the dry ground, until the entire nation had crossed the Jordan. (BSB)

The Elect of God, the Priests, stand firm in their Lord’s word on the dry ground amid the Jordan, by the Lord’s power, holding back the water while their children, the “many called”, pass on the dry ground (Note: probably at a distance sustaining two thousand cubits, 3,000 feet or 1.33 miles to the Priest’s left since greater Israel has been distanced from the Ark) being the first to step into the physically Promised Land. The Priests shouldering Christ, the Ark, are the “few chosen” who are last to complete the crossing.

In speaking of the disgruntled laborers in the vineyard, greater Israel is the first laborers, and the Elect of God shouldering the Ark are the last,

Mat 20:14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. 
Mat 20:15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? 
Mat 20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. 

The Priests representing the Elect of God come from behind the entirety of the world of greater Israel. Having been the last, the very few chosen become the first to represent the much later spiritual crossing of a figurative Jordan into the First Resurrection.

Song of Solomon 5:10-16 – Part 10, The Bride Praises Her Beloved

2Sa 1:26  “… thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.

[Study Aired January 14, 2023]

While not claiming to have been inspired to tease out every spiritual understanding in the Song of Solomon, chapter 5, I hesitate to say, and for the most part of the entire book, doesn’t appear to present startlingly new revelations. As I’ve insinuated in its previous studies, the Shulamite frequently speaks in the third person from the standpoint of her assured election above her sisters of physical Jerusalem. From her humble God-given eminence, she often “charges” them with moral (spiritual) cautions. Her sisters in Jerusalem today are Egypt, Sodom and Babylon, and are not yet alerted to the shocking difference between them and her. Her passionate praises for her beloved in the verses to be studied (Son 5:10-16) are only spiritually understood by her and her Husband.

All stops are out, and nobody more enthusiastically believes every word than the Shulamite as she adventurously praises her Lord.

So, we continue with Shulamite’s “primary theme” of “protracted” and enthusiastic anticipation for her wedding since (Lord willing) every joint hearing this study is Her.

Son 5:10  My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.
Son 5:11 His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. 
Son 5:12 His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. 
Son 5:13 His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
Son 5:14 His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. 
Son 5:15 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. 
Son 5:16 His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. 

Since most of those reading this series of the Song of Solomon are hopefully the Bride, there is no room to edge towards dreariness for understanding the many familiar spiritual meanings of repetitive shadows.

Son 5:10 My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.

Christ is the Bride’s beloved and is the chiefest God above all gods who will spiritually put the entirety (10 x 1,000) of fleshy humanity to death. White is Christ’s righteousness given to the Saints who have come out of the ruddiness of the earth they represent, particularly the ruddiness of blood from overcoming their sins as the first fruits. To the rest of humanity, there will be an unexpected glorious ending from their gnawing of tongues for mental pain at the conclusion of the Eighth Day.

Isa 46:9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
Isa 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

The Elect of God is learning to happily take the sword to condemn sin in their ruddy earth in this age and the rest of humanity in the age to come. Peter had yet to learn to take his sword to himself before judging those whose time was not for judgment.

Mat 26:52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

For the resurrection to judgment, the (white) Elect of God under Christ will cause the main harvest of souls to be “ruddy” by the sword of His word.

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.

What delights the Bride and her Lord are the hidden things of God, where even she, the spiritually rich, sometimes has oversight for spiritual discernment and is overjoyed for correction. In them there is no deceit to hide the truth nor bitterness for correction as they happily die daily for life eternal.

The number 10 (10,000) also represents the fullness of the Shulamite’s sisters of Old Jerusalem, whom she frequently conjures up to respond in the third person to her dreaming. She is overwhelmed with joy for her inheritance which she knows they vaguely see. Her sisters are unwittingly powerless, like the rich man to Lazarus, to bridge the massive chasm between those in the first resurrection and the resurrection to judgment ~ after all, they are in Solomon’s court of 1,000 wives and consider themselves, as does Babylonian Christianity, to be the Lord’s chosen.

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

Of course, the Bride painfully knows, as did Joseph to his ten brothers, the ultimate outcome for all of Israel and her Camp without. After all, she is of the ten, yet is the eleventh symbolically hired at the eleventh hour and is instrumental in the ruin and disintegration of their flesh and their yet-to-be-realised infamy and shock of being the man of perdition as she once was. (Man! Talk about the “hidden things of Christ”! If a person is not given to see, he won’t see, period!)

Son 5:11 His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.

Most of us quickly correlate our Lord’s headship with the shadow imagery of Nebuchadnezzar’s image in Daniel’s dream.

Dan 2:31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
Dan 2:32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
Dan 2:33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Dan 2:34 Thou sawest till that a stone [Christ, the twelfth of the numbers above] was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Dan 2:35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Of course, just as Christ is, so are we during our transition to being recreated. Negatively, in our self-righteousness, we think we have a head of fine gold, not realising that we are a terrible beast with iron teeth that gnashes God’s word and the laity to pieces. (Dan 7:1-8)

As discussed in a previous Song of Solomon study, a man who is white with an ivory-coloured belly, a ruddy complexion with black curly locks would be startlingly unusual indeed. “Bushy” locks seem incongruous, though not necessarily long, to the apparent Roman coiffuring (Phonetic – quof-fur) of the day and to our culture, quite unruly, yet possibly typical since barbers, at least to commoners outside of the King’s court, wouldn’t have been easily accessed.

With those above poetic credentials, and since the Shulamite is most certainly not thinking of having a glass of wine with roast lamb and retiring alone to her room, the possibly least coiffured “curly” part of her Husband’s anatomy leaves only the witless in wonderment. Yet, to the spiritually shrewd, the entire imagery focuses on her lover’s head, just as Christ (number 12) is the head of the Bride.

Her husband’s bushy locks are described as “black as a raven”, which I expect is innocent poetry with possibly no connection to unclean birds. Spiritual contortions could justify its symbolism as Christ’s dead flesh and the blackness of death before he was glorified with white hair.

In his vision while on the Isle of Patmos, John speaks of Christ. The following verses lead in perfectly for the rest of chapter five as the Bride continues to focus on her husband in the “natural”. 

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

Rev 1:12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks [the Bride];
Rev 1:13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 
Rev 1:14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

Son 5:12 His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. 

The Lord is the master of detail to perfectly create deep emotions in people. Not all dove’s and pigeon’s eyes are dove or doe-like for their depth of softness since some have fleshy knobs surrounding their eyes and nose. I once accidentally came in very close range with an Australian female Bronzewing Pigeon sitting on eggs, and I don’t know if brooding temporarily changed her looks, as does happen in the bird and animal kingdoms; however, my breath was taken by this dove’s tender ‘liquid’ eyes. She was the poetic epitome of human femininity. A girl’s eyes with those qualities instantly make a man’s heart skip a beat to foolishly fall in love.

Since the woman was taken from man, Christ is the aggregate of the two, with gentle, peaceful eyes that only have pure thoughts toward his Bride ~ and the rest of humanity. Pure snow-fed streams cascade ‘milk’ as He looks arousingly with animated eyes upon his Bride.

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

A king and priest ruling with Christ are to be perfect in the body, representing the Lord’s spirit. Conversely, a harlot has dull, dove eyes of deceit, coolly calculating her next move that doesn’t cascade white as milk with anticipation. Her doltish eyes are blemished and symbolically not “fitly set”. Some of the credentials for a priest in the temple are…

Lev 21:20 Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; 

Son 5:13 His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.

The cheeks of a priest are the outer structure of the jawbone; in Moses’ time, a sacrifice’s cheeks were the priest’s portion. The Bride is honoured to receive her Lord’s cheeks which are instrumental in her arousal.

Deu 18:3 And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw [belly].

The hair of Christ’s beard being violently torn from his face would have made his cheeks “ruddy” with blood, symbolic of His countenance being more marred than any man’s, and thus by his Bride seeing His torture, connecting them with spices and sweet as flowers.

Isa 50:6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

“Lips like lilies” doesn’t require much imagination for its puckered imagery for her to receive the sweetness of his word.

Son 5:14 His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.

Every part of our physical body represents a wealth of spiritual correlations, with the work of our hands mirroring the mind of our Lord and husband, the King of Kings. Beryl is a crystal coming in many beautiful and mesmerising colours. It is easy to see in the accompanying link the colour of cut beryl is reminiscent of polished brass (a mixture of copper and zinc).

https://www.gemselect.com/graphics/beryl-large_info.jpg

Beryl is one of the precious stones set in the Mosaic priest’s garments that collectively point to Christ.

Speaking of Daniel’s vision representing God:

Dan 10:6 His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

Her Lord’s belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. The Bride’s imagination is unashamedly earthy. Possibly her Lord’s belly is ‘ripped’ (highly toned), with veins of sapphire blue adding to his outstanding masculine elegance.

Son 5:15 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

As we are familiar, every one of the Bride’s depictions of her Lord’s body in the flesh is the Temple from Moses’ time to Solomon and represents Christ. The cedars of Lebanon prominently featured in Solomon’s temple, as did sockets of gold in both Moses’ and Solomon’s temples. Its overall beauty was the talk of the known world of the time as will Christ and His word in the ages to come.

Son 5:16 His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

It requires a little private musing, yet, there is something beautiful in the simplicity of being on the receiving end of another person referring to us as his “friend”. Liking another spoken from the heart is loving him, and the Bride voraciously saying in verse 16 that her man is “most sweet” and “altogether lovely” says that she likes him, and is a love expression. Saying to another person that you “like” them somehow seems more personal; authentically impactful than “I love you”.

Joh 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Joh 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Joh 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
Joh 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 
Joh 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
Joh 15:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

One of the primary reasons this Woman is chosen to be the Bride is because she is given to bring forth much fruit. She regularly, often in tears, asks to be included in the hope of the first resurrection.

There is neither male nor female in the Kingdom of God, and the Shulamite, from her heart, can say that her Lord’s love (his wine) is better than an earthly husband could ever have for a most outstanding wife. Her sisters in Jerusalem were always clothed in scarlet by the sword, never leaving the house of David, and so was she, spiritually, slain in high places.

2Sa 1:24  Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel.
2Sa 1:25  How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.
2Sa 1:26  I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.

Our Lord to us, and we to our Lord in spirit, surpasses the shadowed love of the Shulamite, fulfilling the last part of 2 Samuel 1:26.

Jer 51:33-48  The Sea is Come Upon Babylon

[Study Aired October 23, 2022]

Jer 51:33  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
Jer 51:34  Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.
Jer 51:35  The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
Jer 51:36  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.
Jer 51:37  And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.
Jer 51:38  They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps.
Jer 51:39  In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.
Jer 51:40  I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
Jer 51:41  How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
Jer 51:42  The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
Jer 51:43  Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.
Jer 51:44  And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
Jer 51:45  My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.
Jer 51:46  And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
Jer 51:47  Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
Jer 51:48  Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD.
Jer 51:49  As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.

The first verse of our study, for those who are given eyes that see and ears that hear “the things of the spirit”, demonstrates that the time of threshing and the time of harvest are both just different ways of speaking of the day of our being judged:

Jer 51:33  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.

Being in Babylon is just like being in Christ. If we are in Him, then He is also within us:

Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

The same is true with Mystery Babylon and the adversary who is worshiped by Babylon:

Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Jer 51:34  Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.
Jer 51:35  The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.

It is Satan himself who tells us that God has given him to be “the god of this world”:

Luk 4:5  And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Luk 4:6  And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

‘The sum of [the Lord’s] Word’ reveals that the power Satan has is no power of his own, and he is nothing more than ‘the Lord’s hand’:

Job 1:9  Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10  Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Job 2:4  And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Job 2:5  But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

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

Just because we are informed that the crucifixion of our Lord was by the “hand and… counsel” of God does not mean that this is a one-time thing where the Father stepped into the affairs of mankind and caused a major event to work according to His will. No, it was not a one-time event. These words are telling us that God works all things, after the counsel of His own will and not ours:

Satan is empowered and limited by our Lord. Satan does exactly and only what he is given to do. Therefore, even all the evil in this world is actually “the Lord ruling in the kingdoms of men” via “the god of this world… [His] hand”:

Dan 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

Who are the Lord’s ‘watchers’? If we are in Christ, then we are His watchers and His watchmen:

Isa 21:6  For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.

Eze 3:17  Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

Eze 33:7  So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

Christ and Paul tell us to be “watchers”:

Luk 21:36  Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

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

1Co 16:13  Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

Whether we ‘watch and warn’ the Lord’s flock or we fail to do so and we become a “grievous wolf” it will be the Lord’s “predestinated… work”, working all things after the counsel of His own will:

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

Fortunately for us, the outcome of this battle in our heavens does not depend upon our strength or our fabled ‘free’ will because the Lord wants us all to know:

Php 2:13  For [G1063: ‘gar’, assigning a reason, because] it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Therefore, if we will to ‘work out our own salvation with fear and trembling’ we do so only because it is the Lord working in us “both to will and to do of His good pleasure”, and we have no right to glory in our corruptible flesh.

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

Jer 51:36  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.
Jer 51:37  And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.
Jer 51:38  They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps.
Jer 51:39  In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.

Mystery Babylon is the second beast of Revelation 13. The first beast comes up out of the sea, which symbolizes all of mankind:

Isa 60:5  Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea [mankind] shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.

Jer 51:42  The sea [the nations] is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.

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

Mystery Babylon is signified by another beast which comes up out of the earth:

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

Mystery Babylon is secret Babylon because she appears as a lamb, but she speaks as a dragon. ‘The earth’ out of which she is coming is religious mankind who claim to know God but who “speak as a dragon” by spreading the lies of the great red dragon with all her false, lying doctrines.

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

Mystery Babylon is a mystery because the various religions and denominations within those religions are all confused, and they are pointing at each other and calling each other Mystery, Babylon the Great. The Lord has put it into the hearts of the “ten horns” on the beast that comes up “out of the sea” to rebel against the hegemony and the dominance of religion, and to throw off that influence and dominance. That change of heart toward this spiritual whore is expressed and signified with these words:

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

The words of warning against ancient Babylon are spiritually applicable to Mystery Babylon:

Jer 51:40  I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
Jer 51:41  How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
Jer 51:42  The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
Jer 51:43  Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.

The only other place the name ‘Sheshach’ appears is in:

Jer 25:26  And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.
Jer 25:27  Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.

This 25^th chapter of Jeremiah concerns the seven last plagues which are called ‘the wine cup of [the Lord’s] fury”:

Jer 25:15  For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
Jer 25:16  And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
Jer 25:17  Then took I the cup at the LORD’S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:

“Sheshach” is obviously an epithet for Babylon. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about this name and its origins:

“From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Sheshach (Hebrew: ששך), whose king is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in Jeremiah 25:26, is supposed to be equivalent to Babel (Babylon), according to a secret mode of writing practiced among the Jews of unknown antiquity, which consisted in substituting the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet for the first, the next to last one for the second, and so on. Thus the letters sh, sh, ch become b, b, l, i.e., Babel (see: Atbash cipher).^[1] This code is called the Atbash Cipher and was utilized to decrypt.

The city “Sheshach” does not appear on any map nor in any other documents, save the book of Jeremiah. The Atbash Cipher was applied and out of “Sheshach” came the word “Babel”. This is supposed to be confirmed by a reference to Jeremiah 51:41, where Sheshach and Babylon are in parallel clauses. There seems to be no reason to doubt that Babylon is here intended by this name. “ (End Quote)

Jer 51:44  And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

For Jeremiah to prophesy, “the wall of Babylon shall fall” at the time he made this prophecy would be like me prophesying that all the religions of this world will be destroyed at the appearing of the Lord. At that time, it simply did not appear possible that the wall of Babylon would ever fall. The same is true for Mystery Babylon today. It appears impossible that orthodox, historical Christianity, the largest single religion on earth, and Islam, the second largest religion on earth, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and any other religions of mankind, including the religion of Atheism, will all fall before the power of “the Lord and His Christ”, and yet that is exactly what the scriptures foretell:

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

Jer 51:45  My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.
Jer 51:46  And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

These words repeat the admonitions of verses 6-8 earlier in this same chapter:

Jer 51:6  Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.
Jer 51:7  Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
Jer 51:8  Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

It is the inspired words of verses 6-8 and verses 45-46 which inspired the apostle John to give us the same admonition:

Rev 18:1  And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Rev 18:2  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

Jer 51:47  Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

Verses 17-18 make it very clear that idols signify “falsehood[s]… the work of errors”:

Jer 51:17  Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
Jer 51:18  They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

All the lying false doctrines of all the religions of this world are at this very moment being exposed and rejected by the secular societies of every nation on this earth. The Lord has put it in their hearts to do His will and to turn against all the religions of mankind and to begin their destruction.

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

The false doctrines of every religion on earth have “reigned over the kings of the earth” for thousands of years, but the Lord is preparing this world to forsake all its religions and to learn to live under the rod of iron which will be wielded by “the Lord and His Christ”:

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

“The time of their visitation“ of Jeremiah 51:18 is the same as “the time of the Lord’s vengeance” in verse 6:

Jer 51:6  Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.

Jer 51:48  Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD.

This verse is telling us that the heavens and the earth and all that therein is, shall sing for the fall and the destruction of Mystery Babylon the Great.

The destruction of all the lies of the great harlot, of which I was a true believer, was the greatest ‘earthquake’ ever to take place in my life. I remember telling Sandi that I had come to realize there was no ‘stay of bread nor any stay of water’ in any doctrines of any of the churches we had ever attended.

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

‘The whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water’ both signify the Word of God (Joh 6:51 and Eph 5:26). What we are being told here is that not even one doctrine of Babylon, including the death and resurrection of our Lord, is untainted by the lying false doctrines of Mystery Babylon the Great. The fact is that Mystery Babylon doesn’t believe that Christ died on the cross. Their false doctrine teaches us that Christ possessed an immortal soul which could not die and instead went to heaven to be with His Father, or He went to paradise to be with the thief, or He went to preach to spirits in prison. So even the most basic doctrine of scripture which teaches that Christ died for our sins is perverted and denied by the lying error of the idols of the heart of the ministers of Babylon.

Coming to understand just how deceived I had been was both devastating, and at the same time it was exhilarating, because the casting out of all those lies was the beginning of Christ assuming His throne in my heart and mind, and it was the beginning of being given eyes that could see and ears that could hear the things of the spirit.

My experience is common to every one of you. We have all been dragged to where we are, and remaining faithful to the Word of God is a fiery experience which costs us the friendship of this entire world.

Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

It is the adulterous attitude of going along with the traditions of men to get along with men which turns us all into spiritual “adulterers and adulteresses”. Christ did not go along with the doctrines and traditions of men in His day to get along with the people of His day. He broke the sabbath, and He maintained that He was the Son of God, and for that Mystery Babylon said He must die:

Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

What great love the Father has bestowed upon us that we also should be called “the sons of God”:

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

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

The resurrection of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, struck such fear in the hearts of “the great men of [Mystery] Babylon”, that they plotted to kill both Lazarus and Christ. Just imagine the fear that will strike the hearts of the men of Babylon the Great when Christ Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and all the saints of God from the days of Christ until the day of His appearing shall rise up out of their graves and meet the Lord in the sight of the whole world!!!

Joh 12:9  Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.
Joh 12:10  But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death;
Joh 12:11  Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.

Joh 17:18  As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

This is the “even so” that Christ’s Father sent Him “into the world” to accomplish, and this is what Christ is now sending us to accomplish:

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

That is why you and I have come into this world. We have been sent by God to be Saviors upon Mount Zion:

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

Hi Mike,​

I was thinkin​g​ this morning about ​two​ verses in the bible containing the word forever​:​

​”​Behold, the man had become as one of us, to know good and evil (this was right after he died the first time), now lest he put forth his hand and eat from the tree of life and live FOREVER…”​

“…​and the devil was cast into the lake burning with fire and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet were also, and shall be tormented day and night FOREVER AND EVER.​”​

​I wonder what God meant when he said ‘forever’​the first time. ​H​e just drove ​[Adam] out of the garden and had to live like 900 years before he died the second time. 2nd death…I​ wonder if he died in a lake of fire,​ too…long time to live in a fallen state​,​ doncha think?

​S____

Hi S​____,

Thank you for your question, about having to “die the second time” to use your words.

I think you already know the word translated ‘forever’ in Hebrew is ‘olam‘. Its Greek equivalent is ‘aion‘​ (​eon in English). Both mean a period of time of no particular length but having a definite beginning and a definite end.

With that in mind, ​please consider this verse:

Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed^G606[G5736] unto men once to die^G599[G5629], but after this the judgment:

The verb ‘appointed’ is in the present tense as the [5736] indicates in e-Sword, but the verb ‘to die’ is in the aorist tense, indicating the dying process of those who are being judge​d​ at “this present time” (Rom 8:18).

No one dies twice. The loss of physical life is not considered death by Christ. It is referred to as simply being “asleep”, as Christ plainly said when He raised the 12 year old girl from being physically dead and also​ in ​the ​case of the resurrection of Lazarus:

Luk 8:50  But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.
Luk 8:51  And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden.
Luk 8:52  And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.
Luk 8:53  And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.
Luk 8:54  And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise.
Luk 8:55  And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat.

Joh 11:11  These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
Joh 11:12  Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
Joh 11:13  Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
Joh 11:14  Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

If we are being judged in this present time, then we are dying daily in this present time, and we are the first to do so. The only death with which scripture concerns itself is the death of our carnal-minded “old man”.

If he is ‘dying’ in this present time, then He will come up in “the first resurrection, the resurrection of life”, having already been judged and having his carnal mind burned out of him in this present time.

Joh 5:27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [Greek: krisis – Judgment because they were not judged in this present time].

So no one dies physically twice, because judgment comes only to those who die first and are judged first:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

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

If a person is not experiencing fiery trials and having his carnal mind burned up in “this present time”, then he will come up in a second group to be judged and to die to his old man in the white throne judgment, which is also called the lake of fire or the second death:

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

It is “the second death” because of its order, because it comes only after the first death which is taking place “in this present time” for those who will come up in the first resurrection having been judged in this life.

I hope this helps you to see that no one dies twice and that the second death is a second group who must die to their carnal mind in a “lake of fire [which] is the second death.

YbiC, Mike